Keldon Johnson Embodies the Spurs’ Culture Perfectly
Julian Champagnie calls him his favorite teammate he’s ever had. Harrison Barnes says he’s got one of the biggest hearts of any teammate in his career. What Keldon Johnson brings to the Spurs as the official Sixth Man of the Year is unquantifiable.
His tenacity, grit, and passion as a sixth man have been essential in the Spurs’ success this season. From the DeMar DeRozan- Dejounte Murray iteration to the Victor Wembanyama era, Johnson and the Spurs navigated their way back to championship contention. The uncertainty across the team’s various phases since Johnson was drafted in 2019 is what makes his role off the bench so significant.
Three years ago, he was the team’s leading scorer. Now, he is the go-to guy for a spark off the bench on the second-best team in the NBA. Making the Switch Asking a 24-year-old first-round pick to take a backseat after winning a gold medal in the Olympics and averaging 22 points per game is no easy task.
Johnson admits that the initial acceptance to come off the bench (in 2024) had its challenges. “In that moment, I had to take a hard look in the mirror. And man, I just got embarrassed,” he admitted in The Players’ Tribune.
After starting the previous three straight seasons, Johnson started just 27 of 69 games in 2023-24. Johnson believed he had let himself and his teammates down by not showing up in the way the team needed him to as the primary option. “ I knew that I could either be the person who tries to fight the change, who makes it about them and their ego, and tries to do everything their way (which never really works).
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