Ernie Johnson article

ferrari77 · Mar 29, 2014

Good article on EJ

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mo...-wonderful-life-with-disabled-adopted-son.ece

For years, Ernie Johnson has traveled unscripted alongside Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal in Turner Sports’ state of the art NBA studio. That’s pretty much the plan for next week’s Final Four when Johnson, Barkley and Smith, are joined by Clark Kellogg on the Turner/CBS set at AT&T Stadium.

If you are familiar with Johnson’s Emmy Award winning work, you know he plays the host/provocateur who doesn’t have to try very hard to get analysts Barkley and Smith to bang heads.

It’s a “wonderful life,” Ernie Johnson was saying over the phone the other day from his Atlanta area home.

But broadcasting is only part of that life. Away from the studio, he and wife, Cheryl, a licensed professional counselor, are parents to six children – two biological, four adopted.

This is about Ernie and Cheryl and one of the four, Michael, the son they adopted 22 years ago out of a Romanian orphanage.

He was three years old when Cheryl, who had seen a television report on deplorable conditions in faraway orphanages, journeyed to Bucharest in hopes of adding the first adoptee to the Johnson home.

For Cheryl, it was love at first sight when she noticed a tiny boy, who had not learned to speak, couldn’t walk and had a clubfoot. Abandoned soon after birth, he had been confined inside the orphanage building since the day he arrived.

As Cheryl tried bonding, she took him outside.

Terrified and unable to focus, he screamed in horror when exposed to the alien sunlight.

Cheryl called Ernie back in Atlanta and told him she had found their new son. She told her husband everything.

“If I leave him here I’ll wonder what happened to him for the rest of my life,” Cheryl said.

“It’s time to bring him home,” Ernie told her.

About a year later, sometime in 1992, Michael was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. In 2001, he fell and broke a hip, which ultimately sentenced him to life in a wheelchair.

In 2003, Ernie began a successful three-year battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He underwent chemotherapy and was finally pronounced cancer-free on the eve of the 2006 NBA season.

But, he says, the really scary moment for his family came five years later on Sept. 11, 2011.

Ernie was on the road working a Major League Baseball broadcast for Turner. Michael had to be rushed to the hospital. His lungs were filled with fluid. He couldn’t breathe. He had pneumonia. His heart stopped.

The doctors wanted to know if they should resuscitate. Electric shock was needed to bring him back to life. Seven weeks of battling infections ensued. Ernie skipped Turner’s postseason baseball coverage to be with his family.

When Michael finally was allowed to go home, he was attached permanently to a ventilator.

The Johnsons have employed fulltime nurses ever since. The nurses care for Michael from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. Ernie, who works mostly nights, and Cheryl are the day nurses, meticulously trained in caring for their son as well as the mechanics of the machines that keep him alive.

Michael’s specific diagnosis is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. There is no cure. It only gets progressively worse. Doctors have told the Johnsons that statistics show that Michael, who is 25, might not make it to his 30s.

The Johnsons remain positive.

“Every day,” Ernie said, “is a blessing.”

On the Saturday of the Final Four last year in Atlanta, Ernie, whose tournament broadcast duties had ended, took Michael instead to a car show. The hustle and bustle of basketball at the Georgia Dome was no place for Michael’s wheelchair and ventilator. He had been an honorary member of the basketball team at the local Mill Creek High School, but cars remain his passion.

“Michael has a Rain Man-like memory for people and cars,” his father said. “He identifies people with their cars. He can name the make, model, year and color of the car of anyone he has come in contact with. He can remember what car they drove 10 years ago better than then they can.”

A moment later, Ernie put Michael on the phone.

In a soft, child-like voice, Michael asked what kind of car the voice on the other end drives.

“Color?” he continued.

“Color of interior?” he followed up.

“Year?” he went on.

“New car smell, still?” he wanted to know. He sounded exuberant.

As the conversation closed Michael finished with a “Thank you, goodbye.”

The information was stored. A new identity had been filed away.

When his father took back the telephone, I asked Ernie, who is 57, why he so willingly related his family’s story; how he so easily shared what some might consider very personal stories.

“Every child has the right to a home,” Ernie said. “Any time I can, I speak to the benefit of adoptions for both parents and children, I never hesitate. At the same time it wouldn’t be an honest portrayal if people thought I was preaching something that was all blue skies.”

The Johnsons are a family of faith. Ernie speaks often of their lives at churches, private functions and events he is asked to emcee.

But his story never comes up on TV sets where the scripts call for fun and games. It won’t draw a breath during this weekend’s Elite Eight coverage from the studio in Atlanta nor will it next week when Ernie and company work out of AT&T Stadium.

“I have so much fun at work because I get to hang out and talk basketball with the guys, who wouldn’t?” Ernie said. “But understand, we have a great time at home, too. We are family who loves one another…

“And just seeing what Michael has done with his life and how he has impacted people, I can easily say, we all can say, that he has done so much more for us than we could ever do for him.

“It really is a wonderful life.”
Click to expand...

Juxtaposed Jolt · Mar 29, 2014

Thanks for sharing, OP.

Ernie is so underrated.

A_3PO · Mar 29, 2014

I've always liked Ernie Johnson and it's great to find out he is such a great human being. We need more like him.

Thanks OP.

fallenphoenix · Mar 29, 2014

Juxtaposed Jolt said: ↑

Thanks for sharing, OP.

Ernie is so underrated.
Click to expand...

he comes off as a very level headed and likable guy on air, this article just solidifies it

Pieman2005 · Mar 29, 2014

I hope Ernie retires a Rocket

KellyDwyer · Mar 29, 2014

Ernie is a saint. He called me "a good dude" on TV in front of my daughters on my birthday, which is about as good as it gets.

Haymitch · Mar 29, 2014

Good read. Thanks for sharing.

Asian Sensation · Mar 29, 2014

EJ is the man. You can tell he's a genuinely good person and this article confirms it.

jtr · Mar 29, 2014

Thank you OP for sharing. I felt it in my heart.

xiki · Mar 29, 2014

I met the gent in mid-'90s. Same then as he is today.

EJ made Charles IMO.

ROXTXIA · Mar 29, 2014

EJ has been a permanent fixture in my NBA experience. I don't even remember when I first started watching him with Chuck and Kenny; he's just kinda always been there.

And obviously one hell of a stand-up guy.

Panda23 · Mar 29, 2014

EJ's Keeno stat of the niiiggghttttt - Sponsored by 'Who's cutting dem onions'

11Rox4Life3 · Mar 29, 2014

EJ is awesome.

mvpcrossxover · Mar 29, 2014

Sponsored by........."Nobody!" :grin:

ferrari77 · Mar 29, 2014

ROXTXIA said: ↑

EJ has been a permanent fixture in my NBA experience. I don't even remember when I first started watching him with Chuck and Kenny; he's just kinda always been there.

And obviously one hell of a stand-up guy.
Click to expand...

^ Ditto the above.
I feel the exact same way about EJ.

He always seems like a good dude and he was already pretty high in my book but after reading the article and learning all that about him and his wife, he just went up even higher.

Hakeemtheking · Mar 29, 2014

EB and his wife are great people. Essentially, they saved that orphan boy from certain death.

Much respect to the Johnsons.

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