Photo via Carldell "Squeaky" Johnson

You won’t find an easier player to root for than Carldell “Squeaky” Johnson. A 5’10 point guard who wasn’t recruited by major colleges out of high school, calling him an underdog is understating it.

A year ago, the eastern New Orleans-born Johnson had just posted the fourth episode of Squeak TV, his video blog documenting life in the NBA Development League. Today, he’s getting set to take on the Dallas Mavericks as a member of his hometown team.

If you watch that video, you’ll see Johnson say goodbye to his teammate Eric Dawson, who is off to play in Korea. This is common in the D-League – overseas teams can offer more money, so if it looks like an NBA call-up isn’t coming, you leave. Johnson was an exception to that rule, beginning his fifth year with the Austin Toros this past November before finally getting that call-up at age 28. “I was just chasing a dream. I had faith that one day it would happen and it did,” Johnson said.

He was at the barbershop when I called him. I heard music, I heard a multitude of voices, and, before he told me where he was, I sensed that this interview might be more difficult than anticipated. Johnson surely heard a bit of worry in my voice when I asked how he was doing, as he immediately left so we could have our conversation without the background noise.

If it wasn’t a barbershop, he could have easily been at a high school basketball game. “People come up to me and ask me a lot of questions, but I don’t look at myself as an NBA player,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m still the same person. Coach actually had to pull me to the side and tell me I can’t go to the same places I normally go to because people look at me different now, but actually I feel like the same person and I feel like I can go anywhere.”

While Johnson is one of the fortunate few NBA’ers who get to hoop at home, most of his off-days as a pro did not afford him the luxury of casually checking out his alma mater’s rival team. Just over four years ago, he and current teammate Gustavo Ayon played for Halcones UV Xalapa in Mexico.  Johnson left the team when Dell Demps, then-GM of the Toros, sold him on an opportunity closer to the courts on which he dreamed of playing. “As I was leaving, the team actually doubled my salary to get me to stay,” Johnson said. “But Dell said he’s been looking at me since I was in college and he wanted me to come over and see if I could develop and possibly become an NBA player.” From late 2007 to late 2011, he played all of his basketball for the Toros, save for a couple of brief trips back to Mexico and two stints on the Spurs’ Summer League team. His time in Austin began with him coming off the bench and ended with him receiving an NBA training camp invite from the man who brought who brought him there in the first place.

Hornets GM Dell Demps only had six players on his roster heading into this year’s abbreviated training camp. Needing bodies, he added nine players, most of them with D-League experience. Despite not having eye-popping numbers, Johnson was one of them. “I’ve been around the Toros organization, the D-League, and I guess he knows what I can bring,” Johnson said. “I will always play hard, bring energy, and be a good team player. So, I guess he went with a guy that he can trust to do those things versus someone who’s real talented and can probably score the ball ten times better than me.” Two weeks later, with the Chris Paul saga over and an almost-entirely new cast of characters, Demps had to make his final cut. Given the chaotic nature of camp, the decision wasn’t obvious.

“It was like a game show type atmosphere,” Johnson said. “He called us guys to a huddle, it was four of us – me, DaJuan [Summers], Lance Thomas, and Jerome Dyson – and he pretty much said he wished he could keep everybody but he had to let one of us go and that person happened to be Jerome Dyson. And he’s one of those guys that works hard, that I played against for a couple years in the D-League, and it was kind of like a bittersweet situation… You hope that everybody can make it. Once I heard the news that he got released it was more like, damn, I wish everybody could have made it.”

The sweet part of the situation was dialing his mother’s number. “I called her and told her I made the team and we could probably pay some bills for a little while and hopefully for some years to come,” Johnson said. She thanked God and told her son to keep working hard.

Working hard was all Johnson knew, grinding it out in the D-League. “Everybody’s hungry,” Johnson said.  They try to play hard. With the schedule in the D-League and the travel, it’s hard to play hard every night, but one thing about it, guys go out there and give it their all no matter what the situation is.” Now that he’s in a more comfortable situation, he’s not about to leave that mentality behind, saying that he will always consider himself a D-Leaguer. A pair of D-League socks are hidden underneath his regular ones every game. “It means a lot to me,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of where I come from. The socks, they represent me being in that place and me getting better.”

Johnson follows the Toros and is in touch with his former teammates and coaches, including Quin Snyder, now an assistant coach with the Lakers. “He’s one of the best guys, X’s and O’s type coaches you’ll find out there. He taught me everything I know about pick-and-roll,” Johnson said. “It’s crazy man. He sent me a picture of me in the Staples Center playing for the Austin Toros in the D-League. I thought that was amazing.” The picture, displayed at the top of this post, was accompanied by the text “hope to see you here soon.” The Hornets play the Lakers at Staples Center on March 31. That night, he’ll see his former Austin roommate Darvin Ham, too – he’s also on L.A.’s coaching staff.

While Johnson matured as a professional in the D-League, he was forced to grow up as a man well before the Toros existed. At age 17, he lost his father, Lonnie Johnson, after a long battle with cancer. To steer him away from trouble, Lonnie kept young Carldell focused on basketball. “He was there with me every step of the way,” Johnson said. “He was 100 percent with me. You know, if I had a game out of town, he was there. He was more like a father figure to the whole neighborhood, let alone me — he raised the guys that have been around me, guys I call my brothers to this day because of my father bringing them inside of our home and raising them, trying to teach them right from wrong.”

Five years later, Hurricane Katrina destroyed Elise Ramsey’s home. Johnson was five hours away at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, helpless, knowing no one could get into New Orleans. For five days, he could not communicate with her. “Not being able to hear from your mother, not knowing what’s going on, it was one of the toughest times in my life,” he said. Ramsey was able to evacuate to Houston before joining her son in Birmingham.

Just about any player is bound to be a fan favorite playing where he grew up, but in New Orleans that connection runs deeper than in it might elsewhere. Fans understand what Johnson had to live through in 2005 because they lived it, too.  “Especially younger guys, my generation, my class, my age,” Johnson said. “I’ve been with those guys. I was the guy right next to them, the guy who was on the bench with them or even in a high school band with them. I’ll still be at the same barbershop, so I think a lot of those guys can relate to me… going through the same type of deal and growing up the same way.”

On December 28, the Hornets played their home opener against the Boston Celtics. New Orleans was without its new centerpiece, Eric Gordon; Boston was without one of its leaders in Paul Pierce. In their third game in four nights, the Celtics’ tired legs couldn’t keep up and the Hornets had a 21-point lead with 2:15 left in the fourth quarter. That’s when Johnson checked in and the crowd at New Orleans Arena produced some of the proudest cheers you’ll ever hear.

“It was like a dream come true, man. I thought I was still dreaming, I was hoping not to wake up. It was great. It was one of those feelings you can’t explain or even express,” Johnson said. “Like a dream come true,” he repeated. When Boston was whistled for a technical foul with 37.8 on the clock, the Hornets elected to have Johnson shoot the free throw. As fans chanted his name, he registered his first points in the NBA. In the stands was Elise Ramsey, who had driven from her Houston home for the game.

Johnson played his first extended minutes of the season on January 7 in Dallas. In 17 minutes, he scored nine points and made three of four three-pointers.  He stayed in the rotation for the next three games, too – not bad for a man who virtually nobody expected to make an NBA roster.  He’s since had a few more DNP-CD’s, but as long as coach Monty Williams is there Johnson should have an opportunity to earn his way onto the court. If you know Williams’s story, it’s hard to imagine these two not connecting. “He has a way with words and he believes in God and believes in working hard and not making excuses,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of like my motto: work hard and try to overcome and let tough times become normal. Just don’t make excuses and just deal with whatever situation that comes.”

Hours away from tipoff in New Orleans, I can’t say with any certainty that Johnson will check into the game against the defending champions. The next time his number is called, though, he will be ready – if there’s one thing we know about Johnson, it’s that he’s experienced when it comes to working hard and keeping faith until his time comes.