WPIAL product Cameron Johnson ready to reward NBA team that takes chance on him

On the eve of the NBA Draft, Cameron Johnson was counting his blessings and crediting everyone who played a role the past five years in his development from borderline Division-I prospect to projected NBA first-round pick.

“It’s a long ways from him signing with Pitt and a lot of people asking if he was on academic scholarship,” said his father, Gil, who played for the Panthers from 1988-90. “The only one who thought we’d be in this position was Jamie Dixon – and me.”

True story.

Johnson boasted a 4.4 grade-point average at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Coraopolis, where he graduated as class salutatorian, so he can shrug off the unintended insult despite his 27.8-point scoring average as a senior in 2013-14.

“I definitely had that question,” Johnson confirmed late Wednesday night, just 19 hours before the NBA Draft. “I had pretty solid academics coming out of high school, so it wouldn’t be out of the question from an outsider’s perspective to assume that I got an academic scholarship and would be a preferred walk-on.”

An Easter Sunday pickup game before Dixon – then coaching Pitt, now at TCU – earned Johnson a scholarship offer that he immediately accepted. He graduated from Pitt with a communications degree in three years, transferred to North Carolina and earned his master’s in sports administration.

Now, Johnson is on the cusp of living his NBA dream.

Johnson and his family always believed it was a possibility, but he was a late bloomer. It wasn’t until a six-inch growth spurt his junior year that Division-I programs started showing interest. Johnson appreciates how his hometown school got involved.

“He took a chance on me when not many other coaches were willing to do that at the time. That meant a lot to me,” Johnson said. “When I got to campus, he pushed me to be the best I can be. You look at me when I was graduating high school, and I wasn’t of the mold of these one-and-one guys. Some of these guys are fully grown. I could’ve passed for a 14-year-old. … I don’t believe everyone had the same developmental trajectory. It took me awhile to get to this point. My dad and Coach Dixon looked past that.”

Dixon saw a 6-foot-8, 185-pounder who could shoot, pass and handle the ball and was still growing both his game and his frame. Making it to the NBA wasn’t as far-fetched for Johnson as it first seemed once the Panthers gave him a serious look.

“If you’re thinking they’re going to be good enough to play for us at Pitt at the level we were at,” Dixon said, “you’re going to be on the NBA radar.”

Johnson had no choice but to “find a way to fight,” whether it was in the weight room or practice. He had no choice, if he wanted to earn the respect of his teammates and coaches. A redshirt freshman year was spent taking his lumps amid survival mode, a precursor for NBA pre-draft workouts.

Now, Johnson is hours away from possibly becoming the first WPIAL product selected in the first round of the NBA Draft since Danny Forston in 1997, the second in 32 years and only the fifth in the past 45 years.

“To know that there hasn’t been many first-round picks from the Pittsburgh area in the NBA Draft is a pinch-me moment,” Johnson said. “It’s very special to me and my family – and everybody that has helped me along way.”

And Johnson is ready to reward the next team to take a chance on him.