Ernie Johnson has told the story of his son Michael so many times over the years that it became a touchstone for everyone who’s followed his decades on “Inside the NBA.” In a widely shared 2019 speech, Johnson laid out exactly how an ordinary trip turned into a life-altering decision, years before he’d ever have to say goodbye to the son that trip brought home.
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“When we decided to add to our family through adoption, she went to Romania having no idea what was going to happen, who she was going to bring back, if anybody she was going to bring back,” Johnson said.
He described his wife Cheryl’s 1991 journey to a Romanian orphanage. “We wanted to give some kid a chance that he didn’t have or she didn’t have.” Cheryl found a three-year-old boy who couldn’t yet walk or speak. A nurse at the orphanage tried to steer her away from him entirely. “Don’t take this boy, he’s no good,” the nurse said, according to Johnson.
Cheryl brought Michael home anyway. “I remember what my wife said on the phone was that this guy’s so much more than we can handle, but I can’t imagine going through the rest of my life wondering what happened to that blonde-haired boy in that orphanage,” Johnson recalled.
Soon after Michael arrived in the United States, doctors diagnosed him with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that causes progressive, eventually fatal muscle degeneration. “He’s three years old and he’s got this fatal disease, and you don’t know what you’re going to do and how you’re going to handle that. You wonder, where’s the value?” Johnson said. “What’s amazing is the value reveals itself.”
Michael Johnson died on October 29, 2021, at the age of 33, far surpassing the life expectancy typically associated with his condition. Ernie announced the news on Instagram that night. “This guy we adopted from Romania in 1991 and diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy lived a miraculous life of 33 years,” he wrote. “We lost Michael Johnson today and we’re crushed. But we also know we’ll see him again… and that sustains us.”
The tributes that followed reached well beyond basketball circles. Turner Sports called Michael “a true hero who uplifted and brought joy to everyone he touched,” and the NBA issued its own statement praising his “remarkable courage and perseverance.”
Those who knew the Johnson family described Michael as a beloved presence on his high school basketball team, someone whose positivity left an impression on everyone around him despite a diagnosis doctors warned would likely claim his life far sooner.
Ernie and Cheryl Johnson raised six children together, two biological and four adopted, including Michael. More than four years after his death, the 2019 speech remains one of the clearest signs of why Johnson spent his broadcasting career speaking as openly as he has about faith, family and resilience. “There’s value in everybody,” he said in that speech.