It has been more than 17 years since Michael Jordan retired for good from the NBA. Jordan, who is considered the GOAT by most fans, achieved everything an NBA player could wish for during his career. Be it winning trophies or earning fame, Jordan did it all.
But considering Jordan has been out of the league for almost two decades, there are no active players who played against him right now. That was until yesterday when the Boston Celtics signed NBA veteran Joe Johnson to a 10-day contract.
Johnson was initially drafted by the Celtics in 2001 using their 10th overall pick. Although he played just 48 games for the team at the time, his return to TD garden was as amazing as it gets.
Furthermore, it didn’t take fans long to connect the dots about Johnson being the only active player in the league who had played against ‘His Airness’ Michael Jordan.
Fun fact: Now that Joe Johnson is back, we once again have an active player in the NBA who played against Michael Jordan. 🐐 pic.twitter.com/ayo2mrbedL
— Slam (@slamstudios) December 22, 2021
It is truly great to see him back in the league again. Speaking of his battle against Jordan, he revealed what it meant to play against Mike in an interview.
Joe Johnson is back in @celtics green ☘️ @TheJoeJohnson7 tells you about the last time he was in Boston & laced em up vs Michael Jordan’s @WashWizards 👀 pic.twitter.com/TzglDnGTpU
— Whistle (@WhistleSports) December 23, 2021
Fans appreciated Johnson’s return to TD Garden and applauded him throughout his stay on the court. After all, yesterday was the first time since February 20, 2002, that fans saw Iso Joe don the Celtics jersey once again.
Talking about his two different stints for the Celtics, Sean Grande on Twitter revealed an interesting fact about that. He tweeted:
“The Celtics traded rookie Joe Johnson on February 20, 2002. The 19 year, 305 day gap between his stints with the Celtics is not only the longest in NBA history, it’s longer than the entire career of every NBA player but five (Carter, Parish, Garnett, Willis, Nowitzki).”
The Celtics traded rookie Joe Johnson on February 20, 2002.
The 19 year, 305 day gap between his stints with the Celtics is not only the longest in NBA history, it’s longer than the entire career of every NBA player but five (Carter, Parish, Garnett, Willis, Nowitzki).
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) December 22, 2021
Well, that is certainly a unique record, and it’s highly unlikely that we will see something like this happen again for a long time.
Despite the obvious craze being there for his return, Celtics head coach Ime Udoka only played the 40-year-old just two minutes in the game. Which was enough for the crowd to go crazy and be on their feet. Here is a video of Joe Johnson’s second debut for the Boston Celtics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eThUMbXEqzE
