The NBA surfed the new wave of the covid that shakes most of its teams and carried forward the Christmas day, always special, with five of the best games of the moment. The League has softened the huge impact caused by the numerous casualties by allowing teams to sign players on 10-day contracts and exempting them from the impact on salary limits. That’s what made it possible for the Celtics to turn to Joe Johnson, the 40-year-old forward who had been retired for two and a half years.
The Arkansas player was convinced he had the rope to continue playing in the NBA, but his remarkable career ended much to his regret in May 2018. He was almost 37 years old and played for the Houston Rockets five minutes into the Los Angeles’ game. playoffs in which they were eliminated by Golden State, which was skyrocketing to its third title in four years. The Rockets did not renew Joe Johnson, who sought one last chance in Detroit. But the Pistons fired him in October 2019. He had shone for years with Atlanta and Brooklyn. He was among the highest paid in the League, with almost 22 million euros in the 2015-2016 season, and was an All Star seven times. In his last year at the Rockets his contract dropped to 400,000 euros.
He stayed in shape and in contact with his agents, but received no further offers. He enrolled in BIG3, a professional 3×3 league in which former NBA players compete. “I would not say that I had given up, but I was not very hopeful,” confessed Johnson a few months ago. “My son is 14 years old, so he keeps me in the gym. We work and work and work, and I always tell him: just work. Even when you can’t see what’s next, you should keep working. ” The Little Rock forward did not know that such advice was going to be foreboding to himself. The barrage of covid positives in December shook NBA teams, which suddenly needed to recruit a ton of players.
“I take care of my body”
The Lakers, for example, signed 32-year-old Isaiah Thomas out of the League for 10 days since he was fired by the Clippers in 2020, and 34-year-old Darren Collison, who had not competed in the NBA since 2019 with Indiana. . Atlanta tied 31-year-old forward Lance Stephenson out since April 2019, when he belonged to the Lakers. The Celtics looked at 34-year-old CJ Miles, who had played his last game with Washington in November 2020. And also at Joe Johnson. Last week he was sitting with his eight-year-old daughter when his agent alerted him. Shortly after, the Celtics called. “I am a guy who takes care of his body. I am in very good shape, ready to take on that challenge. “
Said and done. On December 22, Joe Johnson returned to play for the Celtics, who beat Cleveland 111-101. It was barely a couple of minutes. Scored a basket. He had returned to wearing the green clover jersey almost 20 years after his first half season with the team that chose him in 10th place in the draft 2001, the same one in which Pau Gasol came out in third position. It had been 19 years and 308 days since his last game with the Celtics, on February 16, 2002, the longest span between appearances for the same team in NBA history.
On Christmas Day, with Johnson on the bench all the time, Boston lost 117-113 to Milwaukee, which again had Antetokounmpo, after abandoning the covid protocol. Golden State won in Phoenix 107-116, with 33 points from Curry, and was the leader of the West. Brooklyn, without Durant or Irving, among others, defeated the Lakers 115-122; New York, to Atlanta by 101-87 and Utah, to Dallas, without Doncic, by 120-116.
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