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Johnson City Is Boring But Sports Can Help Fix That
Why does the area always think so small?
Jeff Goodman of Stadium Basketball Insider recently had a story where he ranked the top 10 men’s basketball coaching jobs in the Southern Conference.
It wasn’t so surprising East Tennessee State came ahead of Chattanooga for the top job in the league because of what ETSU pays Steve Forbes, who is one of the highest paid men’s basketball coaches at a mid-major level.
But what was interesting was what the downside of the ETSU job was.
“Recruiting base and Johnson City. Not close to very many players, the arena is off-campus and Johnson City isn’t a great town,” said one unnamed SoCon assistant.
It’s true. The Tri-Cities have never produced an NBA player. Though much attention is given to the local high school basketball programs, when the Science Hill teams of the 1990s were successful they didn’t produce any significant college basketball talent.
The common refrain of “why didn’t ETSU go after this local player” died when so many of those players slumped in college, from Jovanny Johnson to Demetric Stevens.
Sure, Patrick Good stars for ETSU, but the last star from the Tri-Cities, Tennessee area ETSU had since then would likely be Ryan Lawson of Cherokee, whose last…
