Kevin Johnson leads the injury prone Goodfellas to a two-point win in Fort Worth

Johnson (6)

There are rumblings going around that The Goodfellas might be cursed this season in the fort Worth draft League.

“UH Fort Worth has not had any Achilles injuries in two years and this team has had two in two weeks. Then you throw in that a replacement for the first injured never made it to the court because he too got hurt during a Saturday pick-up run and it was severe enough to not be able to join. So GM and Mob Boss of The Goodfellas, Kevin Johnson has his hands full especially after losing solid pick Chase Luebker for the remainder of the season,” James Jones said in his Week 3 power rankings article.

Losing Luebker is a tough blow for The Goodfellas, as he had 24 points and 11 rebounds in a Week 1 win. So with all of the injuries, that put pressure on Johnson, the team captain, to step up. He did just that last night, putting up 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists in a 68-66 win over We Gucci.

When asked if his team is cursed in a post-game interview, Johnson responded, “Could be, I hope we broke it tonight. Having three guys get hurt and then the subs getting hurt is not a good omen, hopefully we’ll be alright.”

It’s a step in the right direction for The Goodfellas, who climb to 2-1 this season with the win. Getting a win in the first game with new players should grow the confidence of the team, even if it came in a game where they shot 24% from deep, 50% from the free-throw line and had 12 turnovers.

The highlight of the post-game interview came when Johnson was asked about the shirt he was wearing, which had the number 24 on the front along with the phrase, “Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die.”

“In all honesty as a basketball player I hated Kobe cause he kept beating my Rockets,” Johnson said. “For me, and I told some of the guys before, I think what made Kobe so special was he was the first icon from my generation. Mike was an adult when we came in and started watching basketball, LeBron was a kid when we were all adults, but Kobe grew up together. He walked like us, talked like us, was the same age as us, and the family component too. Twelve hours before I was doing the exact same thing with my son that he did with his daughter, so it hit home. Obviously as a basketball fan you can’t not be appreciative of the guy. He’s a legend and it all resonated with the entire gym,” Johnson said.

Fort Worth honored Kobe by having the first half of every game be 24 minutes instead of the traditional 22, something that multiple leagues are doing this week. We’ll continue to see tributes to Kobe across UH Nation this week, and the shirt combined with the statement from Johnson accurately reflects how so many of us feel about losing such a prominent figure of the game of basketball.