Verified career record
Official bio — Eddie Johnson
17 NBA seasons · 19,202 career points · 1989 NBA Sixth Man of the Year
Edward Arnet Johnson was born on May 1, 1959 in Chicago, Illinois, and played his high-school basketball at Westinghouse before four seasons at the University of Illinois. The Kansas City Kings selected him in the second round of the 1981 NBA Draft, 29th overall.
Shots come and go. Preparation is what lasts.
EJ Scoring Lab principle
- 17
- NBA seasons
- 19,202
- Career points
- 16.0
- Career points per game
- 84.0%
- Career free-throw percentage
- 1989
- NBA Sixth Man of the Year
- 1981
- Drafted 29th overall, Kansas City Kings
01 · The professional scorer
Production that traveled
A 6-7 forward and shooting guard, Johnson played 17 NBA seasons across six franchises — Kansas City / Sacramento, Phoenix, Seattle, Charlotte, Indiana and Houston — appearing in nearly 1,200 regular-season games and averaging 16.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 27.2 minutes per night, on 47.2% from the field and 84.0% from the free-throw line. He also spent a season in the Greek Basket League midway through his career.
02 · The benchmark
Ready on the first possession
He was named NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 1989 with the Phoenix Suns, a season that defined the role he became known for: producing immediately, off the bench, without needing the offence run through him. He finished with 19,202 career points — the second-most of any player who never appeared in an NBA All-Star Game — and remains inside the league's all-time top 70 scorers.
The shot is decided before the catch — feet, hands and balance first.
EJ Scoring Lab · Preparation
03 · The next chapter
From scorer to analyst and teacher
Since retiring, Johnson has worked as a professional basketball analyst and broadcaster, and speaks and writes about preparation, shot selection and career longevity. That body of work is the approved knowledge base behind Official EJ AI and the EJ Scoring Lab curriculum.
From the record
- Second-most career points among players who never played in an NBA All-Star Game.Wikipedia — Eddie Johnson (basketball, born 1959)
- Career averages of 16.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists across 17 seasons.NBA.com player stats
- Listed nicknames include “The Smooth Shooter” and “The Man Who Put The J in Jumpshot”.Basketball-Reference
- Led all NBA non-starters at 21.5 points per game in 1988-89, the season he won the Sixth Man Award in a vote by a nationwide panel of 85 writers covering the league.Los Angeles Times, May 8 1989 — “Suns’ Johnson Wins NBA’s 6th Man Award”
- Contemporary coverage described him as setting the standard for reserves while keying the Suns’ resurgence after arriving from Sacramento.Los Angeles Times, May 25 1989 — “The Bench Mark”