Whatever happened to Larry Johnson?

When I attended my first Charlotte basketball game, my thoughts immediately went to my first nostalgic association--Larry Johnson, the star player of the 1992-1994 Charlotte Hornets. For those who remember, he was known for endorsing Converse Reacts shoes and starred in a couple of Converse commercials opposite his fictional grandmother, dubbed "Grandmama".

"Grandmama" was basically Johnson in a blue flowered dress, grey wig, straw hat, cat's eye glasses and gold-toothed smile. The first ad launched from a very common insult: "[you're basketball skills are so bad] my own grandma can beat you on the court"



Wait a minute....blue dress? Grey wig? Cats Eye Glasses? Sounds familiar....

Anyway......

The "Grandmama" ads grew pretty popular and put Larry Johnson and Charlotte in the national spotlight. The character "herself" grew so popular that merchandising was made to cash in on the craze.
Merchandise from t-shirts to trading cards and posters.

I even recall a time in the Foot Locker when by chance I looked up at the ceiling to find a dangling inflatable dummy of Grandmama's legs (dress, sneakers and all), giving the impression of a slam dunk gone hilariously wrong. That was not the end of it, not by the slightest. The Grandmama phenomenon reached its peak when the character guest-starred on a episode of Family Matters.

But alas, as quickly as "Grandmama" appeared, she quickly disappeared and Larry Johnson left the public consciousness with her. With the Hornets returning to Charlotte this year, I had to find out what became of Larry Johnson since those days. Thanks to the advent of lovely invention I'm blogging on, I could find out very quickly.

Life After Grandmama

To be brief on the subject, Johnson's growing ego, fights with new teammate Alonzo Mourning, and financial strains on the team lead to public backlash and eventual relocation of the team to New Orleans. Johnson himself was relocated to the Knicks, where his rivalry with Mourning intensified and his behavior grew worse. By the early 2000s, he retired for health reasons and converted to islam.

Fellow "blogspotter" Basketbawful has more on this and the fate of the Hornets and John after the Grandmama Era:  http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2011/09/players-i-hate-part-2-larry-johnson.html A more neutral biography is available at wikipedia (ironically):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Johnson_(basketball,_born_1969)

Johnson may have not been the next Jordan or LeBron, but he did cut a deep notch into sports history thanks to one good promotional endorsement. Maybe one day he'll choose to bury the hatchet with his past and pay a visit to the new Buzz City Hornets at Time Warner Cable Arena. Both Johnson and "Grandmama" have made an impact that still resonate in the minds of nostalgic Hornets fans, Charlotte residents, and basketball pop culture fans alike.

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"Affluenza": A fate worse tham Zimmerman

Revisiting the story of Ethan Couch, the "affluenza" kid made me think about that early 90s HBO: Families in Crisis special where drunk driver Kevin Tunell, who killed a girl in a DUI, had to write a check every day to her parents per his sentence for the next 18 years until his guilt eventually overwhelmed him. Not only has Ethan Couch, his parents and especially the judge and psychologist has made an enemy out of his victims' families, but any other person who had to serve a proper sentence for their DUI manslaughter as well as any cop who's had to face the scene of such accidents and any real judge who has had to deal such cases in their courts.


Young Mr. Couch is going to have fewer allies that George Zimmerman, and his parents can't always be there for him. I hope he enjoys spending the rest of his life locked up in the family estate for protection's sake.

There is already a petition in action to have Judge Jean Boyd removed from the bench:

https://www.change.org/petitions/governor-rick-perry-take-judge-jean-boyd-off-the-bench#supporters

As for the "Psychologist", Dick Miller, please feel free to share your opinions on his website:

http://www.gdickmillerphd.com/G. Dick Miller, Ph.D

4001 W. Airport Freeway
Suite 185
Bedford, Texas 76021
Phone: 817-283-8484
Fax: 817.283.8286