The Nevada Sagebrush

Former Nevada guard Armon Johnson declared for the NBA Draft earlier this week, ending his career at Nevada after three years. Johnson averaged 15.7 points per game as a junior. File photo/Nevada Sagebrush

Should Johnson have left? Vote here.

Armon Johnson is never overlooked.

When he walks into a room, his charismatic personality and innocent smile take over. The same could be said for when he steps onto the basketball court.

Johnson prances on the court before tipoff, launches 30-foot jumpers, throws down smooth dunks and jokes with his teammates. Everyone’s eyes magnetize to Johnson — because that’s the way he wants it.

But when he met with Nevada basketball head coach David Carter last Thursday to discuss his basketball future, Carter said he saw a side of Johnson few people get to see.

“He was really nervous, from what I saw,” Carter, who’s coached Johnson in each of his three seasons with the Wolf Pack, said. “He was nervous because he had mixed emotions. He loved this place, he loved playing here, he loved his teammates — it was definitely a hard choice he made.”

Johnson told Carter Thursday night that he wanted to forgo his senior season at Nevada and declare for the NBA Draft.

Johnson leaves as the school’s ninth-leading scorer (1,441 points) and a 2008 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year award under his belt.

He also leaves the city and community he’s spent most of his teenage years.

“It is difficult to leave a place and people you love, and this is a hard day for me,” Johnson said in a press release. “I hope that when I come back here to visit — and I certainly plan on doing so frequently — that I can see as many of the people in the community as possible. I want to thank everyone for supporting me and helping me in my journey, and hope you all continue to cheer for me in this next step.”

Now Johnson’s path, which has been laid out for him since his early high school years, is uncertain. Before, he would just worry about school and playing basketball.

But now, while many mock draft sites have Johnson listed as a late-first to early-second round pick, other draft prognosticators said Johnson’s immediate professional basketball career will take him overseas. Johnson will learn his fate at the NBA Draft on June 24.

While Johnson’s choice will have an immense impact on his life, it will have an almost equal impact on the Nevada basketball team.

And although Carter will definitely miss Johnson’s presence on the team, Carter said he hoped Johnson’s choice to make the leap to the NBA will not hurt the team much next season.

“As a staff, we kind of anticipated he would not return for his senior year,” Carter said. “We’ll be fine. We’re going to miss him, but we’ve been recruiting players who’ll be able to fill that void and come into our system and succeed.”

Although Johnson is serious about leaving for the draft, his release said he had not officially hired an agent, which leaves the door open for him to withdraw from the draft before the May 8 deadline. But should he go, Keith Hackett, Nevada’s associate athletics director, hopes he continues to pursue his degree in human development and family studies.

“The most important thing to us is him graduating,” Hackett said. “We want our young men and young women to get their degrees because life goes on after sports.”

Whether Johnson will finish his degree is up in the air, but Carter said he advised him to do so. He also left Johnson with a few words before the two parted ways.

“I told him to be smart and make the right decisions,” Carter said. “I told him to go about it in the right way and get the right people around you.”

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.

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