The Lorette, Man. native is the first wheelchair basketball athlete to be inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame
When Joey Johnson was first diagnosed with a degenerative hip disease as an eight-year-old, wheelchair basketball helped him continue his sporting endeavours. Now, nearly 40 years later, the Lorette, Man. native is being inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame in recognition of his accomplishments on the court.
“When I was told I had my hip disease as an eight-year-old boy and that able-bodied sporting world was taken away from me, I was in a pretty dark place. I didn’t know how my life would look without sport,” Johnson said. “Finding parasport, adaptive sport and wheelchair basketball, I would say, saved my life.”
The 47-year-old will become the first wheelchair basketball athlete inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Toronto on July 14. Johnson will be inducted alongside Rowan Barrett (Athlete), Don Cline (Official), Alison Lang (Athlete), Liz Silcott (Athlete), Tammy Sutton-Brown (Athlete) and Greg Wiltjer (Athlete).
“It’s a huge honour, especially being the first ever wheelchair basketball player to do it,” he said. “Hopefully, this is paving the path for future generations and already worthy candidates that have played the sport for many years.”
Johnson spent nearly two decades representing Canada internationally and was a force on the Senior Men’s National Team. He competed in five Paralympic Games, winning gold medals in 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Athens and in London in 2012. He also won a silver medal at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Additionally, Johnson won gold at the 2006 World Championships and 1997 Junior World Championship.
“I really I don’t have a favourite; every gold medal is special,” Johnson said. “The gold in 2000 was my first one, so you can’t repeat that, 2004 was a back-to-back, and that doesn’t happen very often at the Paralympics, so that was special.
“The silver in 2008 is special, but maybe for a different reason—we were going for a three-peat and ended up losing in the gold medal game, which will always stand out. I will always have the second-guessing, the hindsight kind of wish I could have, should have, would have. Then 2012 was my last one, so they’re all unique and special in different ways.”
In addition to his international resume, Johnson played collegiate wheelchair basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater before playing professionally in Australia and Germany, leading the RSV-Lahn Dill club team to multiple European championships.
Though he’s competitive, and winning was the goal, the memories off the court stand out to Johnson as he reflects on his career in preparation for the induction ceremony.
“I never set out, when I started playing wheelchair basketball, thinking that I want to be a hall of famer, I want to be a gold medalist,” said Johnson. “I was very competitive as an athlete, and wheelchair basketball gave me an avenue to release that competitive energy. I happened to get pretty good at the game. I feel like all the gold metals and the hall of fame inductions are just a by-product of the journey that I got to take with a great group of people. The group changed over time, but the memories and the trips stand out.
“I have a few recollections of gameplay—the gold medal games or pool play, but I have way more memories of hotel stays, bus rides and the shenanigans that we got up to, and that’s really what the high-performance sport was, for me. It was a way to release that competitive energy, but just to be surrounded by a group of like-minded individuals chasing our sporting dreams.”
Johnson’s achievements in the game were recognized in 2013 when he became the first wheelchair basketball athlete to be inducted into the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2019.
“When I got inducted to the Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame, I was talking to the director here, and he was floored at my accomplishments, and he said, ‘Would you mind if I put your name forward to Canada Basketball?’ I said, I didn’t mind at all, not thinking much would come of it, but here we are.
“I’ve always said this: wheelchair basketball is just basketball being played in a wheelchair, so getting recognized and honoured amongst our peers at a national level is something that’s very special to me.”
Off the court, Johnson is helping Canada’s next generation of wheelchair basketball athletes achieve their dreams. He is the Executive Director of the Manitoba Wheelchair Sports Association and the provincial wheelchair basketball coach.
“To think that there are kids out there, like me, that are going through those kinds of issues—if I can introduce them to a sport with whether it’s basketball, tennis or whatever in the adaptive sense, then it’s a win,” said Johnson. “My goal is to get every kid with a physical challenge here in Manitoba active and playing some sort of sport.”