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Johnson has managed to gain national notoriety and acclaim, even though he has spent more time sitting than playing in his first three years of college basketball. This is no small accomplishment in a country that spawns super star talent by college freshmen.
Yes, Johnson has the talent and if he works on his passing and ball handling skills and improves his shooting so that he is a threat to score from any where on the court he could become as good as Jordan.
I saw Jordan play in college and I can tell you that he did not show all the signs of becoming the player that he became. There was a lot of hype about him, but all the substance wasn't there. The one thing that Jordan did was to work harder on his game than anyone in the NBA. He had athletic talent, but his work ethic turned him into a player that no one in the NBA can touch at this time.
I have seen forty years of basketball. In that time no other player showed signs of Jordan's athletic ability and promise until now. The first time I saw Wes Johnson take off at the foul line and glide in for a dunk, I knew Johnson had great potential. What really impresses me about Johnson is that he averaged nearly 17 points a game and he wasn't trying to do anything more than be a team mate. Johnson has the potential and the ability to take over a game. More over, he is having a ball playing the game. He is the type of player that finds real joy when he steps on to the court and it would seem that he doesn't want the final buzzer to go off. With this kind of attitude, practice is probably just as much fun as the game.
If Johnson stays another year in Boeheim's system and works on the flaws in his game, I can see him developing into a player, who could drop eighty in a game and seem like he's coasting. He has the promise of being as good as Jordan and perhaps better. A big perhaps, I know. Still, if he ended up on Jordan's NBA team, he could get tutored by the greatest and I don't think, that barring injury, he would have any trouble in picking up every lesson from him and mastering it.
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