Unscripted Ernie Johnson Jr. Reviewed by Judy Zimmerman About the Author – Ernie Johnson Jr. is a three-time Sports Emmy Award winner and host of TNT’s Inside the NBA with Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. He is the studio host for NBA TV’s popular Fan Night and a studio host for Turner and CBS’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship coverage. He is the lead play-by-play announcer for Turner’s coverage of Major League Baseball and the PGA Championship. Johnson has also covered the National Football League, the British Open, Wimbledon and the Olympics. About the Book This is the untold story; the one Ernie has lived after the lights are turned off and the cameras stop rolling. Whether you’re a sports fan, a person touched by cancer, a father or son, an adoptive parent, a caregiver to a person with special needs, or just someone who loves stories about handling life’s surprises with grace, Ernie’s story will illuminate the beauty of the unscripted moments in your own life. ”Ernie is not perfect and has not done everything right in his life, but he has a deep desire to live a purposeful life that honors God.” – John Smoltz, Atlanta Braves Pitcher, Hall of Fame 2015 In 2015 a journalist from ESPN asked Ernie to do a profile on his family; a family with 6 kids (4 adopted – 3 of which have special needs and one with the fatal disease of muscular dystrophy). This story was shared in 2015 on the E:60 News-Magazine Show. Ernie has been broadcasting for 40 years and has made a living on television for the last 38, most of those as a Sportscaster. As host of the “Inside the NBA”, it gives you a picture of what he does, but does not necessarily tell you who he is! Ernie was hesitant to share his story but he and his wife asked, “What if his story struck a chord with parents considering adopting, or who have a special needs child?” What if it encouraged someone going through chemotherapy?” “What if it helped mend or strengthen a relationship between a father and son?” BLUE SKY LEADERSHIP CONSULTING | 210-219-9934 | [email protected] Blue Sky Leadership Consulting works with organizations to leverage Strategic Thinking and Execution Planning and we encompass many of the principles in these books into our Four DecisionsTM methodology and development of your company’s One Page Strategic Plans. Need to grow top line revenue? Improve bottom-line profits? Build accountable and trusting teams? Improve cash flow? Develop leadership team members? Contact us for a free consultation Volume 5 Issue 6 CopyrightCopyright 2018 2018 by Blue |Blue Sky Sky Leadership Leadership Consulting Consulting. | All All rights rights reserved reserved. Blackberries Little League Baseball for 8-9-year old’s has great opportunities to learn ‘life lessons’. Ernie’s life lesson was from his Dad, and the story he tells many times over about ‘blackberry moments in life’. Ernie Johnson Jr. loved to tag along with his father, Ernie Johnson, Sr. The blackberry moment was told by the greatest story teller ever! “A game that features a blackberry delay struck a chord with my dad. And oh, by the way, I have no memory of how the rest of the game turned out. From that point on, it simply became the ‘blackberry moment’.” “In many ways that story has become central to my perspective on you name it: work, relaxation – shoot life. It’s a kind of parable about not being afraid to step away from the game (translated the job, the meeting, the conference call, the list of emails, the seemingly pressing matter at hand) to appreciate the unexpected, unscripted moments.” 1998 Ernie was doing track and field play-by-play at the World Cup finals in Johannesburg, South Africa. What he remembers most from that trip was NOT the 100 and 200-meter gold medals, but rather a visit to Soweto a day or two before the runners ran! As Ernie looked out the window of the van at what looked like a village built on a landfill, he saw the smiles on the kids’ faces as they waited for the athletes to arrive at their new sports center. “That’s what unscripted blackberry moments do. We just need the eyes to see them, the ears to hear them, and the hearts to detect them. All that stands in the way is the busyness of life. We’re all so focused on sticking to the script from one day to the next, one meeting to the next, one sales call to the next, that we blow right by the unscripted moments that can profoundly impact not just our lives but also the lives of those with whom we share the planet, the workplace, or a home.” A Father and Son “The greatest teaching didn’t come on the field or in the booth. It came on the walk from the field to the press box.” “My dad wasn’t lecturing me about respect; he was demonstrating it. He wasn’t preaching to me about humility; he was modeling it.” 7 Lessons learned from Ernie Johnson Sr.: 1. Be Yourself 2. Don’t think you’re special because of the job you have 3. Never think you’re bigger than the game 4. Treat everyone with respect 5. Be loyal 6. Once you’ve done your best, to heck with it 7. Take the high road Book Review: Unscripted Volume 5 P a g e 2 | 7 Issue 6 “Like every other on-air personality, I’ve taken more than my share of shots from viewers, especially in this social media age, and it always serves me well to remember my dad’s words.” “And those blackberry moments, if we get too tied up in what we’re doing in our jobs, in the game, in whatever it is, we miss them, and when we do, we’re missing out on so much more.” Someone Who Makes You Better Cheryl “Sometimes you are captured, even on a scratchy telephone line halfway around the world, not by the words you’re hearing but by how they are spoken.” Michael “We were determined to do what we had set out to do in the first place – make this child’s life a better one than what he had before.” “In as understanding a tone as I could muster, I would explain that we had adopted Michael not with an eye on what he would become but for who he was, a neglected, forgotten child who deserved another chance.” Coach Coach Phil Bollier was the varsity coach for the newly opened Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, Georgia (just a few miles away from Ernie’s home) and was Michael’s school. Phil wanted Michael to be on his basketball team. Why? Because he wanted his players to learn two things from this kid in a wheelchair. One was maximum effort. He knew how limited Michael was physically but also noticed that he used every ounce of energy he had just to get around. And he wanted them to learn what it meant to have a heart for others. “Love you too.” “When Phil wasn’t coaching, he was teaching, and in all of his classes, he would talk about this kid Michael Johnson and his fondness for those three words. He talked about sign language and how for a lot of students there is just one sign and it involves the middle finger. Phil said he had another one that should replace that. “I Love You”. Inside the NBA Broadcasting solo for almost 25 years, Ernie was joined by Kenny Smith, a two-time NBA champion with the Houston Rockets. In 2000 Ernie and Kenny were joined by ‘Sir Charles’, (aka Charles Barkley). Charles immediately changed the landscape of sports television, not by creating some on-air persona but just by being himself. Shaquille O’Neil joined the show in 2012 who also showed his real self. “The best moments of the show were those that were unscripted. What made it work for so long is that none of us take ourselves too seriously. We’re all able to laugh at ourselves.” Book Review: Unscripted Volume 5 P a g e 3 | 7 Issue 6 “The show we do is not about me; it’s about everybody on the crew who shows up night in and night out and busts their butts to make the show what it is.” Inside the NBA, because of its unscripted moments, is a distraction from all the real-life stuff we’re bombarded with from the internet and daily news. We are afraid to watch the news some nights because things have gotten more and more out of control. But then you know that later that night you can turn on “that basketball show” on TNT, escape for a few hours, and laugh. A Bump in the Road 1995 saw Ernie having the opportunity to broadcast the PGA Championship. Although Ernie was most familiar with NBA sports, he took the challenge on! “After a thirty-minute baptism into the world of televised golf, even with the mistakes, I left the golf course with a feeling that wasn’t quite satisfaction but also with encouragement. I knew not only that I could do a better job the next day but also that I would.” In 2003, Ernie was at home preparing for the first NBA All-Star Game on TNT.