Leslie Johnson, Indiana BBall Hall of Famer, Left Zero Doubt
Written by William Bryant Rozier
Baby Barkley was a nickname given to Indiana basketball legend and Fort Wayne’s own Leslie Johnson because her game resembled Charles Barkley’s: under the basket…get out of my way. After being drafted by the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, the moniker stayed. “I didn’t want to be called Baby Barkley anymore,” Johnson recalled. “Call me Lady Barkley.”
The re-nicknaming exemplifies what a banger in the paint would do: hold a position/assert an identity, not allowing anyone to dictate your game/story.
When I went looking for Johnson’s bball photos in her Northrop High School yearbook (senior year), there weren’t any. There wasn’t a write-up about her. Jealousy, maybe. (Somebody else was dictating.) Has to be a reason for the omission because Johnson was the sun.
Johnson was the first Fort Wayne player to be 1st Team SAC all four years (1990-1993), the first to have over 1,280 rebounds in a career, the first and only Fort Wayne player to shoot 78% from the field in a regular season, and the first to shoot over 71% from the field in a career. The first to reach over 2,000 career points (2,045). Her battles with Tiffany Gooden, that other ‘90s Fort Wayne legend, were standing-room only.
This April, Johnson became the first Fort Wayne player inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in her first eligible year. The picking committee wasn’t going to wait with her. It can take 45-years for some.
In 1988, Fort Wayne hadn’t really heard of AAU Basketball, Johnson said. The sixth grader played on a team out of Decatur, Indiana, the Thunderbirds, with Tiffany Gooden and Christa Reinking, another amazing player. Their squad won two national championships, led by Gary Andrews, who coaches at North Side. Johnson won MVP honors and All-American plaques.
“I’ll never forget what that meant for me at 13,” Johnson said. “My dad told me that I have to be a leader.” She’s always led. After her two AAU years, she started receiving letters from colleges, but Johnson, needing another challenge, spent her summers playing in camps where college coaches could see her.
At Northrop, she led the Bruins to three straight semi-state final games; the Bruins lost all three. “Those were crushing losses,” Johnson said. “I’m proud…Fort Wayne proud. I wanted to do this for my city.”
Coach Lindon of Purdue University recruited her as a 7th grader but Johnson was not feeling playing for the Boilermakers yet. She grew up watching players like Cheryl Miller of USC…and no Midwest teams…once a year during the NCAA tournament. Purdue never made the Final Four. “Dad said, ‘Leslie, you’re gonna be the first to do it’,” Johnson said. Purdue, led by the freshman Johnson, became the first women’s Indiana team to make the Final Four. More records were set along the way, including 1st team Big 10 All-American and the first Indiana player to become National Freshman of the Year.
Johnson did the improbable, but what was next? Johnson didn’t know. She didn’t have the same energy. Over the summer, she gained some weight; mentally, she rested on her laurels. Then she got injured, forcing teammates to play and improve without her.
Her field goal percentage had dropped. The team was struggling. ESPN reported that Johnson was leaving Purdue, for reason unknown. Nobody knew…it was deep depression. This was the first time for her that things didn’t go as planned. “I didn’t know what to do with those feelings,” she said, “[or] how to handle that pressure.” She called her parents: “Either I take a break or you just might lose me.”
By the time she arrived to transfer-school Western Kentucky, she had gained 60 pounds. The coaches pushed her. She lost that weight, got her Barkley back. Her senior year…All-American again.
When the WNBA didn’t initially draft her, she didn’t fall down again; she stayed strong, kept the weight off until the Mystics called, becoming the first Fort Wayne player to be drafted by the league. With the influx of too-much talent in the only American basketball (seven team) league for women, and how the game moved away from paint play, Johnson’s contract wasn’t picked up. She played overseas for five years, made some money.
Johnson put more weight back on after playing; 420 pounds…that’s not a typo…was her heaviest. But with hard work, she lost it again. After spending 11 years in the department of corrections, a job she loved, Johnson, married to wife Carmen, is a full-time foster mom to five and has a 16-year-old step-son she is co-parenting. Her oldest is a 6’8” soft spoken center. Lady Barkley Johnson wants the gentle giant to growl.
[ART: ERIC HAIRSTON/GEORGIA & PHOTOS: COURTESY]