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Last Wednesday, the sports world witnessed something rarer than a buzzer beater or a successful Hail Mary. Charles Barkley went silent. On national television, while commenting on the retirement of longtime Inside the NBA colleague Ernie Johnson, the typically jovial and opinionated Hall of Famer couldn’t speak as he fought back tears of gratitude and respect.
If there were a Mount Rushmore of sports announcers, Johnson would be on it. If the NBA had its own currency, he’d be on the $100 bill. Back in 2016, my then BreakPoint colleague Eric Metaxas called Ernie Johnson “one of the most inspiring and just downright likeable people in American sports.” He’s also among the most talented. Metaxas told his story:
Between 1993 and 1996, Johnson, alongside his father, Ernie Johnson, Sr., was the TV announcer for the Atlanta Braves. In addition to his play-by-play work for the Braves, Johnson has also announced Major League playoff games, college and professional football, and PGA golf events, among many other things.
But he’s best known for his work in covering the NBA. He’s the host of TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” which has won nine Emmy awards. Johnson and the show’s regulars—Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley—good-natured trade insults and basketball insights.
But what makes the show work is Johnson. His gentle management of hugely outsized personalities keeps the show from descending into chaos while keeping the fun quotient high. But it’s more than astute people skills that make Johnson so special. As Charles Barkley said in a 2015 ESPN profile of Johnson, he has “uncommon courage and a pure heart.”
On Wednesday, Barkley added what many others attest to, that Johnson shows the same kindness to others and love of his work off camera as he does on camera. As a big basketball fan myself, I have long enjoyed the on-air chemistry, humor, and in-depth analysis of Inside the NBA. It’s difficult to imagine who will fill his shoes.
In 2015, the ESPN documentary series E:60 revealed Johnson as an even more impressive father than he is in studio. Johnson and his wife, Cheryl, have adopted four children: Michael, who was born in Romania; Carmen, born in Paraguay; and Ashley and Allison, whom they adopted out of foster care.
Years ago, in an inspiring speech to the University of Alabama football team, Johnson described how when Michael was put in the arms of his wife for the first time at the orphanage, they were told, “He’s no good.” He then told the team why that wasn’t true.
“For Michael to move any part of his body takes maximal effort.” That maximal effort led the basketball coach at Michael’s high school to include him as part of the team. He also wanted Michael to teach his team what it means to have a heart for others. It worked. In fact, by the time Michael was a senior, he had the entire high school saying “I love you” in sign language and, by wiggling a finger, “love you too.” When, five years ago, Johnson announced on an episode of Inside the NBA that his son Michael had passed away at age 33, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith spoke, through tears, about the honor of knowing and working with Ernie Johnson and knowing his son, Michael.
In 2006, Johnson announced on-air that he was battling non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. After thanking his doctors, he described how he would get through it: “. . . [my family continues], as we always have, in both good times and bad, to place our faith in Jesus Christ, and to trust God . . . period.”
It’s rare to have the opportunity to do the kind of work Ernie Johnson has been blessed to do; what he calls “a get to” not a “have to” job. It’s even more rare to recognize it as a blessing, a gift of God, and to then respond with the kind of joy, gratitude, and excellence Johnson has shown consistently throughout his career. Excellence is its own testimony, and it’s even more compelling when it extends to the parts of life no one sees.
Abraham Kuyper said that Christ is Lord of every square inch: That includes the public and the private, the exciting and the mundane. Congrats, Ernie Johnson. And thanks for the great example. I’m grateful we have one more season to watch and laugh and appreciate your work.
Photo credit: Markus Spiske/Unsplash
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can’t find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today’s news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
