Ever wonder how Joe Johnson seemingly doesn’t age? He’s got nearly 40,000 minutes on his NBA odometer, almost 6,000 in the last two seasons (including playoffs), and just turned 33 last week. Only 5 guys in NBA history have more minutes than Johnson through the age of 32: Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, and Dirk Nowitzki.
But Johnson shows no signs of slowing down. Want to know why?
Yoga. That’s right, yoga. Johnson details why in a feature in Sports Illustrated:
“It’s better than weight training or anything of that sort,” says Johnson, who averaged 39.2 minutes and 21.2 points in the playoffs this season. “It’s therapy for my muscles, and my muscles need that more than anything.”
A quick Google search for “yoga studios brooklyn” yields 9.9 million results, which is accurate, because there are roughly 9.9 million yoga studios in Brooklyn.
“It’s meditation and therapy for my muscles,” Johnson adds about the practice. “Because the better you treat your body, the more longevity you’ll have.”
Johnson lives in New Jersey since the Nets still practice there, but given his lavish salary, affinity for shoes, yoga practices, and spectacle choices, he’s a natural fit in Brooklyn. The only thing left for him to do is get a dog that’s 1/20th his size and spend his weekends pretending to buy furniture at the Brooklyn Flea for his free-range chicken farm.
When the Nets move their facility to Brooklyn — scheduled to happen next year — the city should welcome him with open arms. As long as he doesn’t move to Manhattan or anything.
