Michael C. WrightApr 28, 2026, 07:00 AM ETCloseJoined ESPN in 2010 Previously covered Bears for ESPN.com Played college football at West Texas A&MFollow on XMultiple Authors
play1:47Keldon Johnson reacts to winning Sixth Man of the YearKeldon Johnson joins “Inside The NBA” after earning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
On the ranch with Keldon Johnson (3:36)Mike Wright travels to Spurs forward Keldon “Mustang” Johnson’s farm to discuss his journey with San Antonio. (3:36)
Keldon Johnson reacts to winning Sixth Man of the YearKeldon Johnson joins “Inside The NBA” after earning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
Farther up the hill to the right lies a massive pond with shallow and deep ends that Johnson recently had expanded to accommodate a small boat. A newly constructed wooden dock overlooks the freshly stocked pond full of koi, bass, crappie and catfish.
Near the main house, two dogs lie peacefully on their stomachs basking in the fleeting sun of an overcast day in Boerne, Texas.
Located a little more than 35 miles northwest of downtown San Antonio, Johnson’s “peace” as he calls it, currently carries a nickname (we won’t disclose it here so as not to identify its location) that he plans to change someday, above a gate adorned with the forward’s KJ logo (the J also looks like Johnson’s jersey No. 3).
Like Keldon in his NBA career, the whole crew is still figuring out everything on the ranch. Also like Keldon, the crew is loud and gregarious, a laugh-a-minute, positive energy manifested.
Sitting on the bed of a custom, flat-black Dodge dually pickup truck, clad in an assortment of Carhartt gear and cowboy boots or Crocs made to look like cowboy boots, Johnson and his crew are discussing the 26-year old’s candidacy for Sixth Man of the Year. Caught in the moment, Johnson lets slip that he might buy them all Rolex watches to celebrate the occasion.
Like Johnson, this ranch isn’t yet a finished product. Johnson, the 29th pick of the 2019 NBA draft, is settling into his second season in a role off the bench that he never envisioned, one that has paved the way for overall success for one of the NBA’s hottest teams and his first postseason experience, while yielding individual hardware as the league’s Sixth Man of the Year.
Johnson and the San Antonio Spurs can advance to the second round with a win in Tuesday’s Game 5 against the Portland Trail Blazers (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
“I was averaging 22 points [as a starter], had some individual success,” Johnson said. “I’ve been [an Olympic] gold medalist. But I realized that if you want to be here, sometimes you’ve got to remove your ego. San Antonio is a place I wanted to be.
“I wouldn’t change it for the world. I get an opportunity to be a part of something special. They saw the bigger picture before I did. But I’m blessed and fortunate to be able to go through it, thrive in it and have fun with it.”
AFTER HIS THIRD season as a Spurs starter (2022-23), Johnson thought he had finally caught a groove. Former Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, then coach of Team USA, thought highly enough of Johnson’s infectious energy to bring him along to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where he played in just three games, averaging 1.3 points and 6.7 minutes.
Johnson oversaw the music and vibes at the Olympics, summing it up like this: “I was the DJ, just hyping the guys up, trying to pull my weight. That experience was probably one of the best. I got to hang out with the guys, really pick their brains. It really helped mold my career.”
Now it was time for Johnson to star on his own team. He did that in the 2022-23 season, averaging a career-high 22 points in 63 starts. But San Antonio finished with a 22-60 record and missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.
Johnson would start in 26 games the next season, which was French phenom Victor Wembanyama’s rookie campaign. But one morning two days before Christmas, Popovich pulled Johnson aside before a team meeting in Dallas and delivered a stunning message.
“Pop was just saying that he thought it would be best for the team for me to come off the bench,” Johnson said. “I was just like, ‘Whatever. I trust you, Coach. Whatever you feel like is best, I’ll do that full-fledged.'”
“In the moment, it was kind of like a shock, like, ‘All right, I’ve got to figure this out,'” he said. “But I just bought into it. You see how the year is going. It’s amazing.”
San Antonio’s 62-20 regular-season record backs that up, as does Johnson’s Sixth Man award. He became the first Spur in franchise history to score at least 1,000 points off the bench in a season. He’s now the second San Antonio player to win the award, joining Hall of Famer Manu Ginobili.
Johnson has come off the bench in 201 of his past 202 regular-season games, including 159 over the past two seasons.
“I feel like it’s just a testament to the hard work, the dedication that I’ve had to myself, to doing what I love to do,” Johnson told ESPN. “It hasn’t always been easy. But it never deterred me, never steered me away. I just found a way to be the best Keldon Johnson each and every day. Being Sixth Man of the Year is just a testament to that, to my supporting cast, to the Spurs and how much they’ve trusted and believed in me.”
Keldon Johnson reacts to winning Sixth Man of the Year
Keldon Johnson joins “Inside The NBA” after earning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award.
JOHNSON STROLLS INTO arenas most nights on the road carrying a duffel bag or Spider-Man suitcase stuffed full of canisters of pre-workout powders of different brands, flavors and strengths. Johnson usually mixes up a pre-workout drink to give himself an extra jolt of energy on game nights. He sometimes even submits orders to Spurs equipment manager Nico Faz for coffee to sip during games.
It’s not like Johnson really needs the extra energy. He was so excited for Game 1 of the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs that he skipped his pre-workout drink.
Popovich identified that spark immediately during Johnson’s rookie season. Johnson played just 17 games with the Spurs in his first season and started one game. He spent most of that year with San Antonio’s G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs. Still, every time Johnson graced the San Antonio Spurs with his presence, Popovich wanted to see more from the then-19-year-old he once took out for his first experience eating oysters.
“At a certain stage, Pop said, ‘Well, he needs to be around the team. He’s got too much positive energy and too good of an infectious personality, and we need that right now,'” said Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, who was a first-year assistant under Popovich during Keldon Johnson’s rookie season. “Next thing you know, he was bringing a boom box bumping Mariah Carey. LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan are like, ‘Who the hell is this kid?'”
A seven-time All-Star who played in San Antonio from 2015 to 2021, Aldridge was impressed with Johnson’s confidence in his own skin as a rookie.
“He was competitive, physical and confident enough to like what he liked even if everyone else didn’t,” Aldridge told ESPN. “He was confident enough to move how he wanted to move, but [he] never offended anyone. It was always done with good energy and good intentions.”
Spurs general manager Brian Wright scoped that out before Johnson ever played a second of college basketball at the University of Kentucky.
Before nearly every game, Johnson places the Bluetooth speaker near the entrance of the locker room, cranks it to the max, and then runs out to the court for his pregame warmup, leaving everyone in the locker room to deal with the deafening music.
“My guys, man, my family, my mom [Rochelle Johnson], my dad [Chris Johnson], my best friends, they all make it possible for me to be able to upkeep everything out here at the ranch,” Keldon Johnson said. “They’re a big part of what I do. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible. We’ve got a lot of games on the road, a lot of long days and even days when I’m tired just lying in bed. They’re out here working. They’re here making it all possible. I couldn’t thank them enough for that.”
On New Year’s Eve, Johnson hosted some of his teammates at the ranch. Wembanyama still hasn’t visited, but Johnson knows the Frenchman “would love it.”
“We’ve been doing a lot of work,” he said. “We just got the pond finished. I get to find my peace out here. I get to enjoy the animals. My teammates know that it’s always an open invite for everybody. Some people love it. Some people don’t. But I feel like whoever comes out here, they can find their niche and find their peace out here.”
Johnson’s ranch is much like the culture he has created in the Spurs locker room. It’s a safe space, a place where everybody can congregate, laugh and be themselves.
The jokes are endless, like the time Johnson told Florida State alum Devin Vassell that he’d “have a better chance of smoking a cigarette under water” than the Seminoles football team returning to national prominence.
Keldon once asked Ferguson if he’d “come with me if I make it all the way.” Ferguson didn’t hesitate. Now, he’s the unofficial veterinarian (Johnson later called a real vet) on the ranch tasked with taking a first look at El Chapo. Ferguson also assumes the role of unofficial cook and grill master for the people at the ranch who are interested in eating more soulful meals, as opposed to the healthier fare prepared by Johnson’s chef, which is preferred by his friends. Ferguson tells Kyle Johnson that he’s got jerk chicken and yellow rice ready for dinner.
“We allow everybody to be themselves,” Johnson said. “Every team needs role players. Every great team, every team that’s won championships, they have people that know their roles and star in those roles. There’s nothing wrong with that. I have no problem being a role player to Vic, to Steph [Castle], to [De’Aaron] Fox. Showing up every day, bringing the energy, that’s my job. That’s what I enjoy doing. We all allow each other to be ourselves and grow in our own ways. That’s what makes our group close. We bond on and off the court. We enjoy laughing and joking. We enjoy being a judge-free zone.”