For a number of reasons, Johnson’s trade to the Sonics from the Suns – on December 7, 1990 with two future first-round picks for forward Xavier McDaniel – was a disappointment to him at the time. “I was coming from a team that had won 50 games two years in a row,” he recalls. “And going to one that had just lost 12 of 14.” Johnson also liked the Phoenix community, where he has made his post-NBA home. He had also been personally successful in Phoenix, winning the NBA’s Sixth Man award for the 1988-89 season. Adding to Johnson’s frustration was concern that then-Seattle Head Coach K.C. Jones had little idea how to use his newest player. Johnson has related the story that when he first met Jones, the coach asked him if he liked to post up – a funny question to ask of a player known for his touch from the perimeter.

Eventually things in Seattle worked out for Johnson. After a coaching change midway through the following season, the Sonics emerged as a power in the Western Conference with Johnson as a key component off the bench. The Sonics won 47 games and went to the second round of the playoffs during the 1991-92 season. The following season, they went 55-27 during the regular season and advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they took the Phoenix Suns the full seven games before finally being eliminated.

Throughout his NBA career, Johnson was known for his scoring prowess, and his time in Seattle was no different. He finished second on the team in scoring to guard Ricky Pierce in 1990-91 and 1991-92 with averages of 17.4 and 17.1 points per game. With the emergence of guard Gary Payton and forward Shawn Kemp as stars, Johnson’s scoring average dropped to 14.4, still good for third on the team.

It was during the 1993 postseason, when the Sonics were 48 minutes away from the NBA Finals, that Johnson had some of his most memorable moments in Seattle. The first was in game two of the second-round series against Houston. At the end of the third quarter, Michael Cage inbounded the ball to Johnson, who shot a buzzer-beater near the opposing team’s three-point line. Improbably, the shot went in, resulting in pandemonium from the sellout Seattle Center Coliseum crowd. Between the third and fourth quarters, fans chanted, “Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die!” and the Sonics went on to a 111-100 victory. Johnson remembers the shot as key to the team’s momentum. “We had barely won game one and game two was another close game until that shot changed things.” The Sonics went on to win the series in seven games.

In his new career, Johnson interviews Suns guard Joe Johnson for a TV special.

In the Western Conference Finals, the Sonics faced the Phoenix Suns for the right to go to the NBA Finals. The Sonics stole game two in Phoenix when Sam Perkins hit a late three-pointer, but gave up home-court advantage by losing game three. The home team won each of the next three games, forcing a deciding game seven in Phoenix’s America West Arena. Though the game was disappointing for the Sonics and their fans, the one bright spot in a 123-110 defeat was Johnson, who poured in 34 points. “It’s hard to win when the other team shoots 65 free throws,” says Johnson. Indeed, Phoenix shot 64 free throws and set every opponent record in the Sonics record book relating to free throws – most made and attempted in a game, half, and quarter. What really disappoints Johnson, looking back, is losing game three. “If we had won that game, we never would have had to go back to Phoenix,” he explains.

After the season, Johnson was deemed expendable because of the development of other reserves, notably George Karl favorite Vincent Askew. He was traded on September 1, 1993 to Charlotte along with guard Dana Barros for Kendall Gill. This time, Johnson was ambivalent about being traded. “It was just business,” he recalls with little emotion. Johnson spent one season with the Hornets. After a year and a half with Indiana, he was traded to the Denver Nuggets at the 1997 trade deadline. Johnson convinced Denver to release him and he signed with the Houston Rockets, where he finished his NBA career.

During the 1997 playoffs, Johnson found himself on the other side from his former Seattle teammates during the teams’ second-round matchup. “We were up 3-1,” he says. “But they took one down there and one up here and forced game seven.” Houston went on to win 96-91 before falling to Utah in the Western Conference Finals. Johnson played two more seasons, seeing just 18 minutes of action in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, before calling it quits. Even before then, however, he had been thinking of a future in broadcasting. “You’ve got to start your next career before you finish your first one,” he advises.

While talking about the game has suited Johnson, he still does have interest in possibly moving to the bench someday as an assistant coach. “If the right situation comes up . . .” he says when the possibility is raised. Either way, Johnson will surely remain around the game that he loves.