Jeff Waters

In 1991 his wife called him from Romania about a three year old boy who could not walk and could not talk. Here is what she said on that phone call. "this guy's so much more than we can handle" They took him anyway. He became their sixth child. His name was Michael, and the man on the other end of that phone was Ernie Johnson. Within a year the diagnosis came back. Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is a genetic disease that takes the muscles one at a time, and it mostly takes boys. Michael went into a wheelchair. Later he needed a ventilator to breathe. Here is what Ernie Johnson says about getting that news. "What's amazing is the value reveals itself." He lived 33 years. Here is how his father put it when it ended. "This guy we adopted from Romania in 1991 and diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy lived a miraculous life of 33 years." And then this. "We lost michael johnson today and we're crushed. But we also know we'll see him again, and that sustains us." That was five years ago. Today Ernie Johnson announced that this is his last season hosting Inside the NBA. Thirty-seven seasons in that chair. He wanted one thing understood. "Just to be clear, I'm not retiring." "Just cutting back." He called it a turning of the page. Thirty-seven seasons means he was in that chair before most of the people watching him were born. He is still doing March Madness and other work for TNT and CBS. He also started a production company and named it 32 Bowties, and the whole point of it is telling feel-good sports stories. Of course it is. Now go back one more generation. His father was Ernie Johnson Sr., who pitched for the Milwaukee Braves, was a teammate of Hank Aaron, and was on the 1957 team that won the World Series. He went 7 and 3 with four saves that season. Those Braves are still the last team from Milwaukee to win one. Then he put the ball down, went into a booth, and called Braves games from 1962 until 1999. So the son is stepping back from a microphone 64 years after his father first sat down behind one. Be straight about it. A man leaving a studio show is not a tragedy. He is 70 years old, he had a long run, he is not even fully leaving, and plenty of people would take that deal. But here is the line he keeps coming back to, from a speech he gave in 2019. "There's value in everybody." He did not learn that in a television studio. He learned it from a boy in Romania that his own wife said was more than they could handle.

Ron Hunter tore his Achilles celebrating a conference title, so he coached the NCAA Tournament sitting on a rolling stool. Then his son hit the game winner. And he fell right off the stool. Here is the whole thing. Ron was the head coach of the Georgia State Panthers. His son, R.J., was his star. When R.J. was in high school, they used to play a game in the backyard. Ron would count down the clock, and R.J. would try to hit it at the buzzer. "I was money in my backyard." Georgia State won its conference tournament, and Ron was so excited that he tore his Achilles celebrating. So he got around on a scooter, and he coached from a rolling stool. The trainer held on to his belt loops so he would not jump up. They were a 14 seed. They drew the Baylor Bears, a 3 seed. Georgia State was down double digits with less than three minutes left. Baylor did not score again. With under three seconds to go, R.J. pulled up from way out and hit the three. Georgia State won by one. Ron threw his hands up. The stool went one way. Ron went the other. R.J. saw the whole thing. "I saw him cannonball off his chair." Somebody had to help him back up. "I'm not going to coach, I'm going to be Dad right now." And then this. "I wish every dad in America could have that opportunity, what I just experienced with my son." But here is what most people do not know about Ron Hunter. Years before that, when he coached the IUPUI Jaguars, a charity called Samaritan's Feet asked him to coach one game barefoot. The idea was to collect new shoes for kids around the world who had none. He set a goal of 40,000 pairs. By tipoff, people had donated around 140,000. He never stopped. He coached one game barefoot every season after that. He took his players to villages in Africa and South America, where they washed kids' feet and put new shoes on them. He was honest about what it was like on the court. "It hurts, but I'm glad it hurts." And he explained why. "If a child can go without shoes for five, six, seven years, I can surely go without shoes for two hours." Here is the honest part. Georgia State did not win it all. And on those trips, it was never enough. They ran out of shoes with families still waiting in line. "There are just so many kids. We never have enough shoes. Never." He said no win ever matched one thing. "The look on a child's face when we wash their feet." He is known for falling off a stool. He should be known for the shoes. For more stories like this, follow us on any platform @thesportsontap