Does Amir Have A Problem With African-American Coaches?

This is obviously a lot more complicated than it might appear however I just want to point out some facts about Amir.

Before settling in at Westchester High and becoming Mr. Basketball in CA Amir as I recall went to three other high schools

AK: You sat out your freshman year at Pacific Hills because of academic eligibility issues, correct?

Johnson: I wasn't really academically ineligible at Pacific Hills. It was mainly I transferred schools because of our travel. We couldn't get there because it was so far from where we lived. I was with the JV team back then. I felt like, because I'd been playing travel ball, I was ready for the next level. So I kind of went to a different school after that my ninth grade year.

I finished out my ninth grade year at Narbonne High School and that's when my grades started to go downhill. Then I transferred to Verbum Dei. My grades went up and I finished out my tenth grade year there.,,,

AK: Why did you transfer to Westchester? (High school #4)

Johnson: I had friends that were going there from my travel ball team. I played on, like, a million travel ball teams. That's all my parents did, kept me busy with travel ball teams. I had friends who were going there and I begged my mother and father to death if I could go there. The only reason I went there was my grades were finally showing improvement. She finally let me back into public school and my grades continued to skyrocket from there.

Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images
Athleticism always came easy to Johnson, but learning the game took work.

AK: There were accusations of recruiting violations with your transfer, which led to Westchester getting banned for playoff competition in 2004. Did you feel like you did anything wrong? And either way, how frustrating was it to be in the middle of that situation, with people forming opinions about you?

Johnson: It was very frustrating. I felt like I didn't do nothing wrong. I didn't really understand it, so I didn't think it was that serious. They ended up cutting a year out with me not playing. I remember being upset and all I had do was really work on my game and stick with my travel ball team. That's all I did during that time.

1. The head coach at Westchester was and still is Ed Azzam who is white. Amir flourished under him becoming Mr. Basketball in CA

2. Drafted by the Pistons he was sent to the D-League where he flourished under Mo McHone another white coach.

3. When the Pistons called him up he flourished off the bench playing for Flip Saunders another white coach

4. The Pistons replaced Saunders with Michael Curry an African-American coach. Amir played so poorly for Curry that the Pistons dumped him for salary cap space.

5. Amir came to Toronto where he had a couple of good years playing for Triano another white coach.

6. Triano was replaced by Casey and African-American coach and Amir has basically stunk it up terribly. The Raptors press is reporting personal family issues. I have to wonder if they are not issues with Casey.

I expect that Amir will be gone by next fall as I expect him to wind up in Casey's dog house if he isn't there already.

Since playing at Westchester High Amir has flourished under all four of his white coaches and sucked under both of his African-American coaches. Just a coincidence? Personally I think Amir has big problems with tough minded male figures. Casey is certainly a lot more demanding than Triano was and Curry while he was a lousy coach for various reasons also was very demanding. Maybe Amir has a lot of difficulty relating to and favorably responding to African-American authority figures?

In any case like I wrote above, my guess is that he will be gone before next season starts and maybe even before this year's trade deadline.