SEATTLE — The coaches and teammates who watched Mitch Johnson play across the Seattle area as a teenager didn't think he'd grow up to be a leader.

They saw he already was one.

“I remember having conversations with guys in middle and high school and just knowing that Mitch was for sure going to be a coach or GM,” said Jon Brockman, a former University of Washington forward who met Johnson while in middle school.

Mitch Johnson, the son of Sonics great John "JJ" Johnson, grew up in Seattle, won two boys basketball state championships at O'Dea High School and went on to be a four-year starter at Stanford.

After three years in the G League and overseas, Mitch Johnson returned to Seattle in 2011 and proved Brockman right by taking a coaching internship at Seattle U.

Now Johnson, 39, is coaching the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals against the Thunder, who were moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 after 41 seasons in Seattle as the Sonics.

Early days as a leader

Johnson was raised by athletes. His father was a two-time All-Star forward who helped the Sonics win the 1979 NBA championship. His mother, Jenny Redman, is a former University of Washington tennis player, and his stepfather, Rick Redman, was an All-American football player at UW.

Mitch Johnson's friends said his competitive spirit comes from his mother. His basketball IQ comes from his father, who had him in the gym at two days old.

"JJ was probably the original point forward … when you go back to that championship team when he played for the Sonics, Gus Williams and Dennis Johnson used to get out on the wing and JJ pushed the ball," said Charles "Chuckie" Williams, one of Mitch Johnson's former AAU coaches and a longtime friend. "It was because of his great understanding of the game. It's something that was (a) niche."

Chuckie Williams said that before Johnson's age had reached double digits, he was showing a similar aptitude.

“I remember going to third- and fourth-grade games where (Johnson) would be hitting these little boys and girls club players in the head or chest because he saw them open before they had any idea that the basketball was even coming,” Williams said.

Johnson joined the Friends of Hoop AAU team coached by Jim Marsh and Williams in sixth grade. He played on the team, which Brockman was also on, in the summers through high school.

Brockman described Johnson as a "point guard like no other" who always knew where his teammates were supposed to be. He said Johnson also commanded respect from the group of boys and quickly established himself as a leader.

There's a specific game that still stands out to Brockman. It was the final day of the Peach Jam tournament in Georgia, and the team was playing sloppy. Marsh called a timeout. He and Williams were mad, but they didn't have to say a word.

"Mitch just lit into everyone, and not in a demeaning way, just in a 'We're better than this' way," Brockman said. "He had so much respect from everyone that it totally changed the outcome of the game, and we ended up winning."

Johnson also helped lead O'Dea during his four years there. By the time he graduated, he was a four-time All-Metro selection, three-time All-Area honoree, two-time All-State, state tournament MVP and had guided his team to two state championships.

The next seven years of his playing career, including four at Stanford and three spread across the G League and Europe, would keep him away from Seattle. In 2011, he returned.

'You take his word to the bank'

Cameron Dollar was the men's basketball coach at Seattle U in 2011. Dollar, who had previously worked as an assistant at UW, already knew Johnson because he had recruited him.

When Johnson expressed an interest in coaching, Dollar was happy to help.

“I knew that he would do whatever you asked of him and whatever the job required,” Dollar said. “He wasn’t one of those guys that needed to have everything set up for them in order to take the job.”

“When he told you, ‘I want to be a part of this, I want to help,' you take his word to the bank, because that’s how he lived and that’s how he played,” Dollar added.

There isn’t a standout memory for Dollar when he thinks back on Johnson’s time at Seattle U. It's mostly just the image of Johnson sitting at the scorer's table doing his job.

“Seattle U wasn’t the biggest facility,” Dollar said. “He just did his job, you know, it wasn’t a lot of fanfare. He always provided good insight. He enjoyed being a fly on the wall. … He was always polished and professional, so the expectation was for him to take it and go somewhere with it.”

Johnson went on to coach an AAU team before becoming an assistant at the University of Portland. In 2016, he joined the Spurs organization as an assistant for San Antonio’s G League affiliate and a few years later became an assistant on Gregg Popovich's staff.

Five games into the 2024-25 season, Popovich stepped away due to health issues. Johnson was named interim coach, and the Spurs went 32-45 under him.

At the end of the season, Popovich announced he would not return to the role that he had held since 1996. The Spurs officially became Johnson's team before the 2025-26 season, and they went 62-20, finishing first in their division.

A (road) trip down memory lane

On Thursday morning, Williams and Spencer Hawes, another former AAU Friends of Hoop athlete, made the three-hour drive from Houston to San Antonio.

The pair were on their way to watch Game 3 of the Western Conference finals together. Hawes, a former NBA player who grew up in Queen Anne with Johnson, has maintained a close friendship with him.

Johnson has always been the "conductor that makes the orchestra go," Hawes said. People have called Johnson "The Maestro" for as long as Hawes can remember.

Hawes said Johnson's ability to read people and adjust to individual needs is his greatest strength. Hawes, who played 10 seasons across six teams in the NBA, said knowing when to push and when to pull back is crucial.

"That's something a lot of coaches never figure out; they're either all or nothing," Hawes said. "For him to have figured it out so quickly is a testament to all the people and coaches he played for, Chuckie, Jim Marsh, Phil Lumpkin, what his dad taught him and obviously under the tutelage of Pop (Popovich)."

Beyond basketball, Hawes joked that his friend is "good at everything" in a way that frustrates him. As teenagers, every day at the pool with Johnson turned into a race, and that's continued into adult life.

"He's as competitive a human as you'll find, but on the inside, he cares about his people, Hawes said.

Johnson's Seattle roots are being represented during the conference finals. And whether NBA fans in Seattle know it, rooting against the Thunder this series means rooting for the hometown guy.

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