As part of our My Journey series, we speak to Spencer Johnson about his journey from shooting on a backyard hoop in American Fork, Utah, to lifting a championship trophy with Leicester Riders. He reflects on how his faith – including a two-year mission in Italy – and the support of his wife and young son have shaped not just his game, but who he is off the court.
Author: Emma Oliver | 1284 Communications
Backyard beginnings
“Spencer Johnson here, six five guard for the Leicester Riders from American Fork, Utah,” he begins, almost matter-of-factly, before rewinding to where it all started.
“The earliest memory I have of playing basketball has got to be just in the backyard. We had a hoop back there. I had an older brother and a younger brother and [we were] just out in the backyard just playing. It was just fun to be able to play together and kind of grow our love of the game.”
Johnson explains how his father Darren played at Utah State and that he idolised him.
“I’ve never seen the film of him playing, but I’m sure he was a really good player. And everyone I talked to was like, yeah, he could hoop, so, I just wanted to be like him.”
A primary school principal with keys to the gym, his dad would take Johnson there to shoot after school. The first tangible sign that those hours were paying off came in fifth grade, when his dad coached his youth team to a league title.
“We won the championship and I remember having the medal,” he says. “We were driving home in the car and we played that song from Queen. It was ‘We Are the Champions’. It was just so fun.”
AAU and early ambitions
Unlike many pros, Johnson was not an AAU (American Athletic Union) lifer. He started playing in his freshman year of high school.
“I remember one of our tournaments was in Dallas. We got matched up against De’Aaron Fox’s team. And they were unbelievable. I remember in that game, we lost… maybe 20, but I scored 25. So I was really pumped about it.”
The AAU scene also sharpened his sense of perspective.
“You grow up with these dudes, and you play against them in different tournaments, and then all of a sudden you’re like, oh, that guy just got drafted, and that guy’s making 30 million a year, and that guy’s playing here, and he just got traded to this team,” he says.
A mission that changed everything
Yet as his basketball life was gearing up, Johnson was preparing to press pause for something he considered more important.
“I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we’re known as Mormons,” he explains. “You get the opportunity when you’re 18 years old to go and serve a mission.”
During his senior year of high school, he filled out the paperwork, not knowing where he would be sent.
“I was assigned to go to Milan, Italy. I’d never been there before, didn’t know Italian and I wasn’t super sure what this was all going to entail.”
Johnson graduated in May and left in June.
“For two years I was able to live there, learn Italian, support the members of our church that live in Italy, teach people about Jesus Christ, and serve.”
That service ranged from teaching English classes to volunteering in community centres where he gave meals to homeless people and refugees.
“You live away from your home at 18 years old for the first time in your life. You learn a different language. You grow a lot because 100% of your time is spent serving other people,” he says. “It was a really incredible experience to be able to try to emulate what Jesus Christ did.”
Basketball never fully left Johnson’s mind while on the mission, but it did leave his daily routine.
“It was definitely like a pivotal time in my basketball career,” he admits. “At 18, you have such a short window to play, and you’re taking two years out of your life. I’m basically not going to play basketball at all.
“I wasn’t training every day. I wasn’t going to the gym to lift. I was getting to play maybe once a week. So that was hard.”
Finding his place in college basketball
Coming back, he knew he had ground to make up.
“It took a lot of hard work on my end to just try to do what I could,” he says. “But more than anything, it just took a lot of faith for me that if I was going to serve him, he would take care of me in my life.
“That’s what I’ve seen in everything that I’ve done in my personal life, but in basketball as well. When you lose yourself in a cause for other people, it comes back to you.”
On returning from Italy, Johnson joined Weber State.
Though it wasn’t the experience he was looking for so he transferred to Utah Valley University for another six months, only to see the coach he had gone there to play for leave for BYU.
At the time, NCAA rules meant Johnson couldn’t simply follow or he’d have to sit out for a year or two.
Instead of waiting on the sidelines, Johnson took what looked like a step backward on paper, transferring to junior college powerhouse Salt Lake Community College for a year before making his way to BYU, where he spent four seasons.
“When I got there [to BYU], they were in the WCC, which is a mid-major conference. And when I left they had transitioned into the Big 12, which people call the best conference for basketball in America,” he says.
But his role didn’t fall into place straight away.
“When I got there, I had these expectations. I’m going to start and I’m going to play a lot and I’m going to contribute. And it didn’t work out that way,” he says. “I actually didn’t play hardly at all for the first seven, eight games of the season.”
He found that really discouraging and frustrating, but rather than stew, he asked for clarity.
“I remember going in, talking to my coach, I said ‘Coach, I’m not playing, but I want to contribute to this team. What does our team need? What do you need me to do?’”
The answer was role-specific: the coach needed someone to play defence on the perimeter and guard the guards.
“I was like, okay, I’m going to do it. And that was my whole goal for the whole season my freshman year,” he says. “And I did it and I ended up getting playing time and it just progressed every year from there.”
By his senior year, BYU was in the Big 12, and he was facing the likes of Kansas, Texas, West Virginia and Iowa State.
Family, timing and turning pro
Off the court, Johnson got married during his sophomore year at BYU and three years later, at the height of the season, their son Joey arrived.
“I was travelling across the country and at any point this kid could have come, and I could have been in Florida or Texas or New York or wherever we’re [playing],” he says. “Issy was a rockstar. She was a champ through the whole thing.”
The timing bordered on miraculous.
“We played Baylor at home in Utah, and we beat them. The next day we had off, and she starts to feel [contractions] that night, and we’re like, oh, this could be it,” he says.
“We were in the hospital all that night. He was born the next day. We had a kid. It was the craziest thing. These two kids had a kid.”
That night Johnson went home to sleep, woke up to attend practice and flew to Kansas for another marquee game – which BYU won. Johnson still marvels at how perfectly the schedule aligned, knowing he might easily have been thousands of miles away when his son was born.
The leap into the professional game, however, brought a new kind of uncertainty.
“The whole process of going pro, you hire an agent and he shops you around to teams around the world,” Johnson says.
As the summer of 2024 went on, deals progressed but then fell through at the finish line. Time and again, he and Issy found themselves close to a deal, only to watch it collapse at the last minute.
Finding home in Leicester
Then came England.
“Our agent called us up one day and said, ‘hey, I’ve got this team in England called the Leicester Riders, but I’m honestly not sure if ‘Lester’ is how you pronounce it’,” Johnson laughs. “So he’s like, ‘give them a call and tell me what you think about it’.”
So he picked up the phone and called Coach Rob. Two days later he flew into the UK and joined the team.
Johnson, who is now studying a master’s degree in International Business at Loughborough University alongside playing basketball, couldn’t be happier about how last season turned out.
“My wife and I loved it,” he says. “We ended up winning the championship at the end of the year, which was just the cherry on top.”
In the Riders’ locker room, as captain, he has embraced a leadership role, working to connect with teammates, carry out the vision of his coach, and ensure that everyone is in a good headspace as the pressure of the season ramps up.
“I really enjoy getting to connect with our players as much as I can, and trying to take what Coach Rob is implementing and make sure that it’s happening in our games and our practices,” Johnson explains. “Trying our best to make sure that all of our guys are in good head spaces and feeling good.”
With the playoffs looming, he knows enough to expect the unexpected.
“Anything can happen, right?” he says. “As we’ve seen not only here but in March Madness, when the right team gets hot at the right time, anything can happen. So, still a lot of games left to play.”
