Mickey Johnson

Wallace Edgar "Mickey" Johnson (born August 31, 1952) is an American former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association. After graduating from Chicago's Lindblom High School and playing collegiately at Aurora College, the 6'10" forward/center was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the fourth round of the 1974 NBA draft. The Blazers immediately traded Johnson to the Chicago Bulls, with whom he averaged just 3.8 points per game as a rookie. He improved quickly, moving into the Bulls' starting lineup during the middle of his second season. A versatile scorer and aggressive rebounder, he averaged 17.3 points and 10.2 rebounds in 1976–77. On April 17, 1977, in the deciding game of a first-round loss to Portland—the team that originally drafted him, Chicago then being a Western Conference team—Johnson scored a playoff career-high 34 points and added 14 rebounds. The following season, he averaged 18.3 points and 9.1 rebounds, and on February 26, 1978, he scored 30 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in a 100–99 loss, again to Portland. In 1979, he signed as a free agent with the Indiana Pacers.