AJ Johnson press conference – NBA Draft, 2024

AJ Johnson press conference – NBA Draft, 2024

first off um congratulations I know how this Journey’s been for you but talk about you know um the reception and out there with the family I saw the fam out there Jaylen was there everybody supporting you Mike Hill everybody just talk about having the the group together and being there for you and the support and how everybody’s a unit out of Fresno yeah no 100% I feel like it’s no it’s no feeling like it just uh having all the people that uh that’s been a part of your journey since the beginning seen you grown I feel like it’s nothing like it just having them here with me to experience this with me and uh support me so yeah there nothing there’s no feeling like it honestly other questions for AJ yeah AJ congratulations man um just talking about that Journey obviously down in Australia like it it wasn’t easy for you but you stuck at it how proud are you of sticking at it and sort of showing everyone what what you got yeah no 100% I’m super proud of myself just um sticking through that um Australian season um knowing things didn’t go my way but just continuing to uh believe myself every single day and continue to just keep taking steps into uh getting better and like looking at the bigger picture um of my career and yeah I feel like it was just a great experience being out there front row um I wanted to ask you about the the workout in Milwaukee you had that workout re really early you did you really you crushed that workout and then talk about I mean did you know from the beginning after that workout that you you know that was going to be the team that was most likely going to possibly draft you yeah I feel like Milwaukee was uh one of my best workouts I had but um yeah even in the interviews I got the combine and stuff like that like the interview was really well it just seemed like they um had like my best interest and uh like they really liked me so yeah I kind of felt a little bit like Milwaukee would uh be the team that want me but yeah for sure again you know you decided to play in the com um and it worked out you played extremely well showed a lot of things that teams you know wanted to see from you what can you say to the people out there about not dodging any smoke and playing in the combine even when people are scared to playing an event like that too as well I would say that you just you just got to sometimes you just got to really just pop out and just like show people for real like you just got to uh not want to duck or just be scared like believe in yourself more than anything and just uh show people like all the hard work that you’ve been putting in and the Vision that you see and just put it out there fourth throw on the left AJ can you tell us about uh the influence that uh Justin Tater P you know was coach in the NBL yeah I feel like um just him coming in in like the the 10th game of the season for us as a team and just uh given us a lot of freedom and a lot of trust I feel like it really helped our team as a whole just uh play just better in general with the players that we had so yeah I feel like um he was a big part of like our team success for sure yeah and also just your thoughts on you know heading to Milwaukee to sort of team up with Giannis that must be incredible yeah no it’s it’s no feeling like Yannis he it’s still so uh so real to me just trying to continue to just soak it in but um it’s truly a blessing any other questions yeah yeah no like like I said before it’s it’s really truly a blessing to just have like players um that you’re like really close with that or at the level that you want to be at and they’re doing the things that you want to do like on the court and just to have them like to pick their brains and just advice that they’re giving me I just feel like it’s just truly a blessing and I’m just yeah thank you AJ thank you my guys

After being selected by the Milwaukee Bucks with the 23rd overall pick in the NBA Draft, Next Star AJ Johnson speaks to the media.