NBA DRAFT

June 26, 2024

AJ Johnson

Q. Talk about the reception out there with the family. Everybody supporting you, Mike Hill, everybody. Talk about having the group together and being there for you and the support and how everybody is a unit out of Fresno?

AJ JOHNSON: A hundred percent. I feel like there's no feeling like it. Just having all the people that have been a part of your journey since the beginning and seeing you grow. I feel like there's nothing like having them here with me and experiencing this with me and supporting me. There's no feeling like it, honestly.

Q. Talking about that journey, obviously down in Australia, it wasn't easy for you, but you stuck at it. How proud are you of sticking at it and showing everyone what you got?

AJ JOHNSON: No, a hundred percent. I'm super proud of myself just sticking through that Australian season, knowing things were not going my way but continue to believe in myself every single day, and keep taking steps and getting better and looking at the bigger picture of my career. I feel like it's a great experience of being out there.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the workout in Milwaukee. You had that workout really early. Did you crush that workout? Did you know from the beginning after that workout that that was going to be the team that was most likely was going to possibly draft you?

AJ JOHNSON: I feel like Milwaukee was one of my best workouts I had. Even in the interviews at the combine and stuff like that, the interviews went really well. They just seemed like they had my best interests and they really liked me. So yeah, I kind of felt a little bit like Milwaukee would be the team that would want me.

Q. You decided to play in the combine. What can you say to people about not dodging any smoke and playing in the combine even when people are scared to play in an event like that?

AJ JOHNSON: I would say that you just got to sometimes really just pop out and just show people, for real. You've just got to not want to duck or be scared. Believe in yourself more than anything and show people all the hard work that you've been putting in and the vision that you see and just put it out there.

Q. Can you tell us about the influence that Justin Tatum had you as coach in the NBL?

AJ JOHNSON: I feel like him coming in the tenth game of the season for us as a team and giving us a lot of freedom and a lot of trust, I feel like it really helped our team as a whole just play better in general with the players we had. He was a big part of our team's success, for sure.

Q. Your thoughts on heading to Milwaukee to sort of team up with Giannis, that must be incredible.

AJ JOHNSON: There's no feeling like it. It's surreal to me. Trying to soak it in. But it's truly a blessing.

Q. Talk about the opportunity to be mentored by Giannis.

AJ JOHNSON: Like I said before, it's just really truly a blessing to have players that you're really close with that are at the level that you want to be at and are doing the things that you want to do on the court. Just to have them to pick their brains and (receive) advice that they are giving me, I feel like it's truly a blessing.