The return no one saw coming

A Daniel Johnson return to Adelaide might have been on the bingo card of a handful of hopeful NBL fans heading into this season, but picking him to be playing at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre as a member of the opposition team felt pretty far-fetched.

That’s exactly the prospect we’ve been presented with this weekend. Johnson’s second game as an injury replacement player for South East Melbourne will come at the club where he spent 13 seasons and won seven club MVPs.

Johnson established himself as one of the premier bigs in the NBL while a member of the 36ers organisation, and while a title eluded him in the City of Churches, his trophy cabinet weighs heavy with the raft of individual awards he won during his tenure.

His return to the NBL with the Phoenix has seen him re-take his place as the top scorer and rebounder among all active players with a grand total of 6163 career points - 174 clear of Chris Goulding – and 2735 rebounds – 971 clear of Tom Abercrombie.

This Friday’s clash will see him return to Adelaide as an opposition player for the first time since 2010. On that occasion he scored 17 points for the Melbourne Tigers in a game that saw him playing alongside current Phoenix assistant Sam Mackinnon, and club CEO Tommy Greer.

Daniel Johnson controls the ball against the Adelaide 36ers in 2010.

Johnson’s departure from the 36ers at the end of NBL23 may have been slightly acrimonious, but new teammate and South East Melbourne star Alan Williams is hoping 36ers fans will give a warm welcome to one of their greatest ever players.

“When I heard we were signing him I looked at the schedule and was like ‘holy cow, we’re playing Adelaide in Adelaide and they didn’t bring him back amongst all the turmoil going on there’,” Williams told NBL Media.

“It’s the perfect opportunity for him to go out there and prove why they probably should have picked him up and I’m excited to be part of the group that gets to go out there and hopefully have a good night for him.

“I would hope they do some sort of tribute. A lot of teams show that respect to players from their past and he’s obviously done so much for that organisation, scored a lot of buckets for that team and really helped that community.

“I hope the Adelaide fans – from what I understand and what I’ve seen they’re a classy bunch and a good group of fans – I’m expecting a lot of support and a lot of love shown to him."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">13 seasons, over 6000 points, one legend ?<br><br>Daniel Johnson is departing the Adelaide 36ers, and the club has announced plans to retire his number 21 jersey ?<br><br>Read more: <a href="https://t.co/XKTZA3vP54">https://t.co/XKTZA3vP54</a> <a href="https://t.co/4XWnZuY7Tq">pic.twitter.com/4XWnZuY7Tq</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1693810401513963792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Should Johnson take to the court against Adelaide it would be his second appearance in two games in his new colours, and last week’s defeat against Melbourne didn’t exactly go to plan for South East Melbourne.

While the Phoenix were without the services of Gorjok Gak – which is why Johnson has been brought in – Melbourne trio Ian Clark, Luke Travers and Matthew Dellavedova were all ruled out of the clash ahead of the opening tip.

Johnson played with the physicality and bite that has become synonymous with his career, and ended the clash with three points, four boards and a block, and post-game head coach Mike Kelly said he was happy with the injury replacement’s contributions – unsportsmanlike foul notwithstanding.

Craig Moller called on his side to be more switched on defensively for the full 40 minutes following the loss, and Williams believes Johnson’s presence in the group will be beneficial to the side in the long run, as well as immediate short-term.

“He looks like he’s in phenomenal shape and I’m sure there’s something to prove there. I love the fact we have somebody else on the team with a chip on his shoulder, with a lot of experience in this league, and his resume speaks for itself,” Williams said.

“I’m excited to have him, and I bet the rest of the guys are too. However long it ends up being I think his presence is going to be really beneficial for the squad.

“We have two former training and development players from Adelaide’s system in Ben Ayre and Mitch Creek, and they both attest to how valuable he was to their careers from where they are now.”

Johnson himself was typically coy about the impending reunion with Adelaide in a press conference on Wednesday morning.

“I get to play another game in front of some family and friends which is exciting,” he said.

“I’ve said in a couple of interviews I have a lot of good memories in Adelaide, so I’m just focusing on those and the positive things that have come out of that.”

Johnson will make his return to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday night when South East Melbourne takes on Adelaide at 7:30pm AEDT.