‘Fuel to Her Fire’: A Rising Basketball Star Thrives When You Doubt Her

Johnson was always fast and enjoyed gymnastics. In Virginia, she found herself among people whose country dialect she did not understand and who could not understand her.

She joined Williams’s Black Widow A.A.U. team. That first practice, Johnson promptly dribbled toward the rim and threw the ball over the entire hoop. But Williams soon found that Johnson immediately retained any lesson he imparted, like the intricacies of footwork and the advantages of angles.

Williams told Johnson that she had a special ability that needed nourishment. Johnson, eventually, believed him.

“Everybody thinks that her talent is basketball,” Williams said. “No, her talent is the ability to pick up things.”

Johnson learned the game from Williams and from Milton Rodwell, her brother-in-law, as she shuffled between spending the school year in Virginia and summers in Philadelphia, competing against boys and learning not to rely on just her talent. In high school, Johnson persuaded Brooks to let her move back to Philadelphia, where her father, James Johnson, lived.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/sports/basketball/diamond-johnson-north-carolina-state.html