Happy 66th birthday to former Westinghouse star Eddie Johnson

Eddie Johnson and I were born five weeks apart in 1959, just miles apart in Chicago. That’s where the similarities ended. Johnson ended up 6-foot-8, a basketball star at Westinghouse on the west side. I ended up 5-foot-10, the sports editor of the “West Word” at Niles West in Skokie. 

Our paths crossed a few times over the intervening years and it usually worked out well. Eddie, who celebrated his 66th birthday Thursday, has always been a straight-forward, tell-it-like-it-is guy — just as he is as a Suns broadcaster and energetic Twitter personality.

Three memories in particular stand out: 

1. In 1993, in a sidebar for a story on Westinghouse as the “High School of the Week,” Johnson said the Westinghouse basketball powerhouse under Frank Lollino — with Eddie, Mark Aguirre and Skip Dillard — got its start almost by chance. 

“I went to Westinghouse because it didn’t have a swimming pool and I could not swim and I did not want to swim,” Eddie told me. “That was the only reason I went there. I knew nothing about the school.” 

2. In 1996, after the Bulls already had become the first team in NBA history to win 70 games, Johnson prevented the Bulls from becoming the first team in NBA history to finish with single-digit losses. With Bulls and Pacers tied at 99 in the final seconds at the United Center, Johnson was fouled by Michael Jordan with 0.5 seconds left and hit 1-of-2 free throws to give the Pacers a 100-99 victory to drop them to 71-10. (The Bulls beat the Bullets the following day in D.C. to finish 72-10 en route to their fourth NBA championship in six seasons. 

“Yeah, he fouled me,” Johnson said before he was even asked. “But it was one of those calls [where] if he wouldn’t have called it, I could understand it. But he did foul me.” 

3. And in 2005, for a Sun-Times story on the key Chicago-area recruits who resurrected Illinois basketball in the ‘70s  — Bloom’s Audie Matthews, Morgan Park’s Levi Cobb and Westinghouse’s Johnson — Eddie explained how a fit of teenage petulance at a national All-Star game compelled him to go to Illinois as a high school senior in 1977. 

“We were coming off the bus after a practice for this all-star game,” Johnson said. “Magic [Johnson] was in front of me, and as we got to the hotel door, the Michigan coaches almost broke their necks to open the door for Magic and let it shut on me. As a young kid, the simplest thing pisses you off, and your ego comes into play. I felt like, ‘I’ll show them.’ 

“That’s when I decided I wanted to to blaze my own trail. Knowing what I know now, I understand why they were opening the door for Magic, and I might have gone to Michigan or Michigan State. But when you’re young, you’re thinking more ego than anything else. I made a life decision based on that one incident. Illinois was the choice.” 

Illinois fans had hoped that Aguirre — a McDonald’s All-American at Westinghouse in 1978 — would follow Johnson to Illinois. But Aguirre chose De Paul and many Illinois fans blamed Illinois coach Lou Henson for limiting Johnson’s minutes as a freshman and turning off Aguirre. 

It was one of those tales that often are mythology, but Johnson didn’t deny it. 

“Mark Aguirre and I had a deal — wherever I went, he most likely was going to go,” Johnson said. “But I didn’t play much my freshman year, and Mark was like, ‘Forget that,’ and went to De Paul.” 

But in typical Eddie Johnson fashion, his common sense prevented him from joining the chorus of disappointed Illini fans. On the contrary … 

“Lou knew [about the Aguirre scenario], but Lou wasn’t going to compromise the team, and I’m glad he didn’t,” Johnson said. “That year sitting on the bench is the reason I made it to the NBA. It taught me a lesson. It taught me that I couldn’t rest on my laurels and I had to get stronger. I was 180 as a freshman. I came back weighing 220 and knocking everybody down.” 

Johnson spent 17 seasons in the NBA and, though he has lived most of his adult life out of town, he has never forgotten his roots. Not just Westinghouse and the city, but at Illinois. 

“Illinois was the best four years of my life,” he said in 2005. “I played 17 years in the NBA and I wouldn’t trade those four years at Illinois for nothing.”