Markell Davon Johnson (born August 25, 1998) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for

BC Astana Astana Basketball Club ( kk, Astana Basketbol Kluby), commonly referred to as BC Astana, is a Kazakh professional basketball club that is based in Astana, Kazakhstan. Founded in 2011, it has competed in the Kazakhstan Basketball Championship a ...

of the

Kazakhstan Basketball Championship The Kazakhstan Basketball Championship (russian: Чемпионата Казахстана по баскетболу) is the highest professional basketball league in Kazakhstan, it is organised by the National Basketball Federation Kazakhstan. Its ...

and the

VTB United League VTB United League (russian: Единая Лига ВТБ) is an international professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league that was founded in 2008. It is made up of mostly Russian clubs, along with one each from Belarus an ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

NC State Wolfpack The NC State Wolfpack is the nickname of the athletic teams representing North Carolina State University. The Wolfpack competes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) for college footb ...

High school career

Johnson played basketball for four years at

East Technical High School East Technical High School or East Tech is a secondary school under the operation of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cleveland, Ohio. History The school, when it opened on October 5, 1908, was the first public trade school in the cit ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. As a freshman, he scored 27 points and made a game-winning jump shot with 3.1 seconds left against Lake High School to help his team reach its first state semifinal since 1972. He was considered one of the best freshman in Ohio. In his junior season, Johnson averaged 31.6 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.5 steals per game, leading East Tech to its third straight league title and a district semifinal appearance. He was named

Cleveland.com ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of Ma ...

Boys Basketball Player of the Year and Northeast Lakes Division II All-District Player of the Year by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP). On May 2, 2016, Johnson decided to reclassify to the 2016 class and forgo his senior year. On the

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...

(AAU) circuit, he played for the King James Shooting Stars, a team affiliated with NBA player

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...

. Johnson was a four-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

and committed to play

for

NC State North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The university ...

over offers from

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

, among others.

College career

As a freshman, Johnson served as a backup to

Dennis Smith Jr. Dennis Cliff Smith Jr. (born November 25, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He attended North Carolina State University for one season of college basketba ...

, who enrolled a year earlier than expected. He averaged 8.9 points and an

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

-leading 7.3 assists per game as a sophomore. On December 19, 2018, Johnson set career highs with 27 points and five three-pointers in a 78–71 upset of seventh-ranked

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

. He missed three games as a junior with a back injury. Johnson averaged 12.6 points and 4.2 assists per game as a junior, shooting 42.2 percent from behind the arc. After the season he declared for the

2019 NBA draft The 2019 NBA draft was held on June 20, 2019. It took place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, i ...

but ultimately returned to NC State. He injured his ankle in practice and missed the first game of his senior season, an overtime loss to

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. Johnson hit a halfcourt buzzer beater to defeat

UNC Greensboro The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG or UNC Greensboro) is a public research university in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. UNCG, like all members of the UNC system, is a stand-al ...

80–77 on December 15, 2019. On December 22, Johnson recorded a

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

of 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a 83–63 win over

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

. He became the third NC State player to ever achieve the feat, joining Dennis Smith Jr. and

Julius Hodge Julius Melvin Hodge (born November 18, 1983) is an American-Antiguan former professional basketball player and current assistant coach at Little Rock Trojans. Originally from Harlem, New York, Hodge played college basketball at NC State and was se ...

. He was named ACC player of the week on December 23. Johnson scored a career-high 28 points and made a halfcourt shot in a 88–66 upset of sixth-ranked

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

on February 19, 2020. At the conclusion of the regular season, Johnson was selected to the Second Team All-ACC. As a senior, Johnson led the ACC in assists per game (6.8) while also averaging 12.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.

Professional career

On August 6, 2020, Johnson signed a two-year contract with

Beşiktaş Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and Şişli, on the west by Kağıthane and Şişli, on the south by Beyoğlu, and ...

of the Turkish

Basketball Super League Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

(BSL). In October 2021, he signed with Pieno žvaigždės Pasvalys of the

Lithuanian Basketball League Lithuanian may refer to: * Lithuanians * Lithuanian language * The country of Lithuania * Grand Duchy of Lithuania * Culture of Lithuania * Lithuanian cuisine * Lithuanian Jews as often called "Lithuanians" (''Lita'im'' or ''Litvaks'') by other Jew ...

. On July 5, 2022, he has signed with

MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg Riesen Ludwigsburg ( en, Giants Ludwigsburg), for sponsorship reasons MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, is a professional basketball club that is based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the first tier of ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

(BBL). On August 23, 2022, he was released by his club, as he failed his medicals. On November 19, 2022, he signed with

of the

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 30 , , 3 , , 20.4 , , .377 , , .250 , , .577 , , 1.6 , , 2.3 , , .9 , , .3 , , 4.0 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 26 , , 24 , , 29.1 , , .460 , , .409 , , .609 , , 3.4 , , 7.3 , , 1.7 , , .2 , , 8.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 33 , , 30 , , 25.3 , , .488 , , .422 , , .747 , , 2.6 , , 4.2 , , 1.1 , , .2 , , 12.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 31 , , 30 , , 34.1 , , .405 , , .267 , , .606 , , 4.4 , , 6.8 , , 1.9 , , .3 , , 12.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 120 , , 87 , , 27.2 , , .437 , , .344 , , .646 , , 3.0 , , 5.1 , , 1.4 , , .3 , , 9.7

References

External links

NC State Wolfpack bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Markell 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Cleveland BC Pieno žvaigždės players Beşiktaş men's basketball players NC State Wolfpack men's basketball players Point guards