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Patrick Johnson Makes Duke Basketball Team, Never Played in High School

Aired March 14, 2003 - 15:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Patrick Johnson is one of the underdogs of March Madness. He's a teenager. He never played ever a lick of basketball when he was in high school. But he has overcome a lot of adversity. He is now a member of one of the nation's most prestigious college teams.
This story now from Bruce Burkhardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are among the best college basketball players in the country: the Duke Blue Devils, a perennial powerhouse. Just to be on this team is an accomplishment.

But what if even though you're 6'9" you never played high school basketball? What if you camped out last year just to get tickets for the big game with all the other Cameron (ph) crazies, those rabid Duke fans who paint their faces and bleed Duke blue? What if you only dreamed of being on this team and then tried out anyway, and then made it?

(on camera): Patrick, you played intramural ball, you played rec ball, and now all of a sudden you're going out with the best college players in the country. And you just thought you could pull it off?

PATRICK JOHNSON, DUKE PLAYER: Well, at first, I didn't think it was very realistic. But the more I worked at it and kept thinking about it, I thought I had a shot at it.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Corny, but true. It all starts with a dream. Just like the "Rudy" story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey some day I'm going to come out of that tunnel and I'm going to run on to this field.

BURKHARDT: "Rudy," the movie about the kid who always dreamed of playing Notre Dame football. The Patrick Johnson's story has a different twist.

SUSAN BROOKS, PATRICK'S MOTHER: We were kind of afraid that he was going to be disappointed about the whole thing. I mean we're always afraid about that. BURKHARDT: Disappointment is something Patrick knew from an early age. When he was seven, his father, Mike, was killed in a car crash.

BROOKS: Patrick and his dad were real close, and Patrick missed him enormously. I mean, it left a huge hole for him. And it has given him a perspective on life that was, you know, hard to come by.

BURKHARDT (on camera): At this point in our story, I need to admit a personal connection to all this. I've known Patrick and his family since he was a little kid. Or, as I like to say, since he was this high, because he grew like a weed. 6'9", he became, but never played basketball here at Atlanta's Grady High School because of knee surgery.

He did play baseball, though. And when he went off to Duke last year, it was almost preordained. Both his mother and his father met while students at Duke Law School.

BROOKS: Actually, my mother and father met at Duke also in the '40s. And so he completely owes his existence to Duke University.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Still, no one expecting him to play basketball there.

JOHNSON: I tried to stay realistic or grounded about, you know, the chances of me actually making it, but I wanted to be confident about it. You know a lot of my friends said, oh, there's no way you can do that or whatever. But I tried to stay confident about it, definitely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't like me was an all-American or an all-star. But he had a great attitude, he worked hard, he listened. And he had all the ingredients that we needed.

BURKHARDT: Patrick has only gotten just a few minutes of playing time this season, but it's a lot better seat than he had last year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patrick was camping out at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the year before, when we played Maryland. And a year later, he's on the court when we're playing against Maryland. So it doesn't get any better than this, I think.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




in High School>


Aired March 14, 2003 - 15:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Patrick Johnson is one of the underdogs of March Madness. He's a teenager. He never played ever a lick of basketball when he was in high school. But he has overcome a lot of adversity. He is now a member of one of the nation's most prestigious college teams.
This story now from Bruce Burkhardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are among the best college basketball players in the country: the Duke Blue Devils, a perennial powerhouse. Just to be on this team is an accomplishment.

But what if even though you're 6'9" you never played high school basketball? What if you camped out last year just to get tickets for the big game with all the other Cameron (ph) crazies, those rabid Duke fans who paint their faces and bleed Duke blue? What if you only dreamed of being on this team and then tried out anyway, and then made it?

(on camera): Patrick, you played intramural ball, you played rec ball, and now all of a sudden you're going out with the best college players in the country. And you just thought you could pull it off?

PATRICK JOHNSON, DUKE PLAYER: Well, at first, I didn't think it was very realistic. But the more I worked at it and kept thinking about it, I thought I had a shot at it.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Corny, but true. It all starts with a dream. Just like the "Rudy" story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey some day I'm going to come out of that tunnel and I'm going to run on to this field.

BURKHARDT: "Rudy," the movie about the kid who always dreamed of playing Notre Dame football. The Patrick Johnson's story has a different twist.

SUSAN BROOKS, PATRICK'S MOTHER: We were kind of afraid that he was going to be disappointed about the whole thing. I mean we're always afraid about that. BURKHARDT: Disappointment is something Patrick knew from an early age. When he was seven, his father, Mike, was killed in a car crash.

BROOKS: Patrick and his dad were real close, and Patrick missed him enormously. I mean, it left a huge hole for him. And it has given him a perspective on life that was, you know, hard to come by.

BURKHARDT (on camera): At this point in our story, I need to admit a personal connection to all this. I've known Patrick and his family since he was a little kid. Or, as I like to say, since he was this high, because he grew like a weed. 6'9", he became, but never played basketball here at Atlanta's Grady High School because of knee surgery.

He did play baseball, though. And when he went off to Duke last year, it was almost preordained. Both his mother and his father met while students at Duke Law School.

BROOKS: Actually, my mother and father met at Duke also in the '40s. And so he completely owes his existence to Duke University.

BURKHARDT (voice-over): Still, no one expecting him to play basketball there.

JOHNSON: I tried to stay realistic or grounded about, you know, the chances of me actually making it, but I wanted to be confident about it. You know a lot of my friends said, oh, there's no way you can do that or whatever. But I tried to stay confident about it, definitely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't like me was an all-American or an all-star. But he had a great attitude, he worked hard, he listened. And he had all the ingredients that we needed.

BURKHARDT: Patrick has only gotten just a few minutes of playing time this season, but it's a lot better seat than he had last year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Patrick was camping out at (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the year before, when we played Maryland. And a year later, he's on the court when we're playing against Maryland. So it doesn't get any better than this, I think.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




in High School>