Kobe Johnson was trying to be sly, sneaking glances over at Mick Cronin on the sideline. Cronin caught on, but it didn’t matter.
USC’s star defender decoded the play call from UCLA’s coach — a shot for Lazar Stefanovic — and signaled to his teammates what was coming.
The Trojans got a stop. The Bruins got an earful.
“That’s not going to work,” Johnson playfully told Cronin last season as he headed up the court the other way.
In his head, Cronin acknowledged defeat.
“I was like, damn, I can’t get him,” Cronin said.
Well, actually …
On Thursday, Johnson sat two seats over from his new coach for a television interview about their team.
Cronin got him.
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A year after he wore a USC jersey while representing the Trojans at Pac-12 media day, Johnson wore a dark blue checkered sport coat, white shirt and black pants while appearing on behalf of the Bruins at Big Ten media day.
The 6-foot-6 senior forward might have been UCLA’s biggest get of a busy offseason in its bid to make an equally monumental transition — from losing record to national title contender. Among the six transfers the Bruins imported, Johnson is the only one to make a major conference’s all-defensive team for two consecutive seasons.
“I’ll be shocked if he is not an all-league player when it matters in the postseason, when the votes are tallied up,” Cronin said inside the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. “He’s just a winner. He defends. He’s as good a defensive player as I have ever coached, and I coached a national player of the year two years ago defensively in Jaylen Clark.”
He’s also something of a rarity. Johnson is believed to be the first basketball player to have played for both L.A. schools since the final years of World War II, when Frank Bowman spent his first year of medical school playing for USC after three seasons at UCLA. The rise of the transfer portal and the demise of long-standing rules that required intraconference transfers to sit out two years made Johnson’s move possible.
Some of his new teammates might momentarily wish that he remained a Trojan. With his long arms, quick hands and unmatched ability to diagnose a play before it happens, Johnson has been the Bruins’ biggest early practice foil.
“The word for it is annoying,” point guard Dylan Andrews said of what it’s like to go up against Johnson, whose presence must be accounted for even when he’s not guarding him. “But just having a player like Kobe on our side and not on the opposing team’s side, it’s wonderful, man.”
The benefits include being on the winning team during a summer pickup game involving Clippers star James Harden.
“That was a hell of an experience,” Johnson said of trying to cross up a player known for his crossover.
It wasn’t really anything new for someone who goes up against an NBA player regularly. Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson, Kobe’s older brother, engages in one-on-one battles with his younger sibling whenever he comes into town. Jalen prevailed in their latest matchup this summer, though it required significant effort.
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“He ended up winning,” Kobe said, “but it was a battle to the end. It wasn’t no cakewalk for him.”
Shortly after the Trojans stumbled to a 15-18 finish last season, Johnson entered the transfer portal, seeking an opportunity to win and be the best version of himself.
“I’m not saying I didn’t get that at ‘SC,” said Johnson, who averaged 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game last season, “but I just wanted a change, and I think this is the best opportunity for myself.”
Cronin was the first coach to express interest, showing Johnson how much he was coveted by someone he had grown to respect.
“My first reaction when I saw him coach was like, man, this guy is crazy,” Johnson said of the animated coach, “but at the same time I’m like, OK, he’s winning and his players are playing for him and they’re listening, so something has to be going on. That’s what attracted me, his intensity and his love for the game because that’s what I want to play for — I want to play for a coach that cares.”
Johnson moved across town into a Westwood apartment with his girlfriend and their three tuxedo cats — Minx, Mama and Olly — and set about working on his jumper and making plays out of the pick and roll, skills that would show his ability to do more than just defend.
The onetime Trojan has received welcoming messages from a litany of former Bruins, including Baron Davis, Ryan Hollins, Matt Barnes and Bill Walton before Walton passed away in May.
“Just go be great,” Walton told him.
In case there was any doubt about Johnson preparing for his return to the Galen Center, he answered it when asked if he had looked at when the game fell on the schedule.
“Yeah, I did,” Johnson said. “Jan. 27.”
He’s ready for whatever fan angst and silly barbs from DJ Mal-Ski might come his way, his anticipation saving him once again.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.