Eddie A. Johnson knows what it feels like to spend 17 seasons competing at the highest level of professional basketball, from navigating the physical demands on the hardwood to handling the media glare as the Phoenix Suns’ announcer. After being part and parcel of the constant evolution of the game, he’s now taking his unfiltered insights to his new podcast, Edification with Eddie Johnson.

The veteran voice is bringing that same uncompromising analysis to the show, named by his brother-in-law, aiming to add real substance and education to modern basketball discourse rather than chasing quick hot takes.

Johnson opened up about everything from the root causes of today’s staggering injury rates to his recent clashes with Draymond Green. He has candid thoughts on JJ Redick’s controversial era comments, Yaxel Lendeborg’s remarks about Luka Doncic, and how his inner-city Chicago background shaped his basketball philosophy.

And he even dropped his bold championship pick.  

(Editor’s note: The following article is adapted from an exclusive interview. The transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

What inspired you to launch your new podcast, Edification with Eddie Johnson, and what can fans expect from the show?

Eddie A. Johnson: Edification with Eddie Johnson. My brother-in-law gave me the name because he said, “Eddie, you’re always trying to educate people.” We listen to so many different podcasts, and a lot of them are just maybe a little bit on the negative side or looking for the quick take. And for me, over the years, I’ve kind of grown tired of just somebody making a statement, but they’re not explaining the statement.

And so for me, I just like to maybe back up some things that are said over the internet and then just come back and just add a little bit of substance to it without the fighting, without the arguing, and all of that. So they’re just more educating. That’s what I try to do on Twitter, my “@Jumpshot8” account on Twitter [Now X.com]. I just try to educate people. I’ll just comment on certain things that I don’t think is correct, in my opinion, and I’ll just have something to say about it.

But yes, an hour podcast. My next episode should be out here in the next day or so. I plan on doing two a week when I start to get rolling. So, yeah, I would love for people to check it out.

You had a unique take on today’s massive spike in injuries, blaming the Players Association for shortening training camps back in 2016. What advice would you give today’s players regarding preventive measures?

Eddie A. Johnson: I would tell them that just don’t forget that you got to the league based on hard work and everything that you’re going to get successfully is going to be because of hard work on the other side.

And what I would tell them is the most monotonous, boring thing to do for an athlete is to stretch, is to get themselves in 100% shape, because sometimes we tend to want to take shortcuts and we want to believe that we’re invincible, and we’re not. In basketball, you have to do everything. It’s not football, you know? It’s not hockey. It’s not soccer… NBA players have to do everything. And because of that, you’re always moving. You’re always jumping. You always get knocked down, and you got to be 100% correct. Your body has to be right. You can’t shortcut it.

So, you know, focus on training camps. They cut down training camps in 2016 with collective bargaining, and it became official the next year. And they cut down days to train. They cut down two-a-days. They did all of that, and it hurt them.

And we’re seeing it every year. We’re seeing the injuries. We’re seeing the lower leg injuries. We’re seeing the soft tissue injuries. Those are injuries I’m telling you I never experienced when I played, and I played 17 years in the NBA, but I stretched. I mean, I stretched for an hour before and it was—I hated it. It was boring. I get it, you want to shortcut it. But I’ve been a proactive person my entire life. I always close my eyes and think about the repercussions of something that I do not do or I do. And that’s just ingrained in me because I grew up in the inner city of Chicago, and I had to have a different route to school every day because I had to avoid the gangs.

And so for me, it was always thinking ahead and saying, ‘Okay, Eddie, if you do this, this can happen. If you do that, that can happen.’ I don’t think our young players in general think that way, and they get themselves in trouble.

Recent public clashes with players like Draymond Green highlight friction between modern athletes and legends. Why do you think today’s players are so sensitive or closed off to criticism?

Eddie A. Johnson: I don’t think it’s just athletes. I think it’s just young people in general. They tend to think that they’re smarter than their parents and their uncles. In a lot of ways, yes, they have gotten some education on things that we missed out on. But just in life in general, how to lead, how to talk to people, how to treat people, there’s no newness to that. It doesn’t matter what kind of education you have. You treat people with respect. You say the right things. You try to lead people and all that.

Sometimes, in us trying to give them that advice, they push back on it because, one, maybe they’re embarrassed about it. Maybe they feel like they’re smarter and they’re doing it the right way. But you can’t give up the help, right? For me, I always listen to my mom, always listen to my older brothers and sisters, because I felt like they were going to guide me.

Yaxel Lendeborg said some things about Luka [Doncic]. He said some things about the NBA that I didn’t think it was his place to do it. That was his first game, his first press conference. He’s a rookie. No, rookies are meant to be seen, not heard. And I grew up with that.

Veteran players taught me that. “Eddie, pay attention to us. We’ll help you. We’ll help you do the right things.” And they did. They helped me get the right apartment and not spend too much money. They told me, “No, man, don’t get that car. Get this car. You’re going to save money.” Like, that’s the kind of advice that you always should get from older players.

But yeah, some of the young players—not all of them, but some of the young players—they tend to push back because they think they know it all. And right now they find themselves in a rut because they’re having these injuries and they don’t know why. They got the best shoes, according to them. They have trainers. They have nutritionists. I mean, all these things are provided for them, right? And still they can’t stay healthy. And so that’s the part that should be concerning.

What do you think today’s NBA most misunderstands about your generation of players?

Eddie A. Johnson:  I think they have misunderstood the fact that they’re not that far advanced than we are. As JJ Redick once said, we’re firemen and plumbers, because we had to—not me in general, but the generation before me had to work a side job, even though they were playing in the NBA. And so, in saying that, you’re saying those guys were slow, which is not true. The pace back then in the ’60s was faster than this pace right here. This pace gets up more shots because they’re taking more threes. So they’re able to get up a shot quicker because they’re taking it from a longer distance, whereas we didn’t have the three-point line. And then we had it; we didn’t focus on it as much. It was more of a get-back-into-a-game shot. It wasn’t more of a chuck-up-five-of-them-on-the-first-five-plays-of-a-game shot.

It’s that part, I think, that they struggle with, and just respecting the past and understanding that a lot of players from the past would have a tremendous amount of success in the league today because of the rule changes. The rule changes would allow them not to touch us. We were great mid-range shooters. We were great to dribble left or right to get off a shot. In this generation, they don’t do that because they’re not told to do it. They’re told to shoot a three-pointer or get to the rim. A two-point shot is a contested shot, which means it’s a bad shot. It’s that kind of mentality that has been ingrained in them, whereas we didn’t have that.

I scored almost over 20,000 points, including playoffs, in my career, and I would guarantee that 17,000 of those shots were obviously mid-range shots, you know, in the midst of the defense. I wasn’t a leaper. I wasn’t a guy that jumped over people. I was just smart. I knew how to get my shot off. That’s the one area that I think that really harms the young player in really developing their game.

Let’s wrap up with a quick rapid-fire round. Who is the better player: Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

Eddie A. Johnson: LeBron.

Who is the face of today’s NBA?

Eddie A. Johnson: Unfortunately, it’s still LeBron.

What do you miss most about your playing days?

Eddie A. Johnson: The camaraderie.

What is one thing about today’s NBA you absolutely love?

Eddie A. Johnson: The athleticism.

Can you describe your NBA journey in one word?

Eddie A. Johnson: Blessed.

Who is your MVP prediction for this season?

Eddie A. Johnson: Luka right now.

And your championship prediction, who is going all the way?

Eddie A. Johnson: San Antonio.

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