The Real Motivation behind Joe Johnson's Second Tour of Duty with the Boston Celtics

The seven-time All-Star who ranks 45th on the NBA's all-time scorer's list, signed a 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics, returning to the franchise that drafted him 20 years ago.

Joe Johnson hasn’t played in an NBA game since 2018.

The time away from the game has afforded the 40-year-old lots of quality time to spend with his family.

So it wasn’t all that surprising that when Johnson got the call on Tuesday from his agent Jason Glushon that the Boston Celtics might be interested in signing him, Johnson was out to dinner at the time with his eight-year-old daughter, Justice.

“Be ready. You might get a chance to play in Boston,” Johnson recalled his agent telling him.

“And the rest,” Johnson said 24 hours later to the media in Boston, “is history.”

The 17-plus year NBA veteran signed a 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, creating a full-circle moment for Johnson as he returns to the team that drafted him with the 10th overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft, 20 years ago.

Focusing on Johnson’s return to the team that drafted him - and then traded him away about six months into his rookie season - would be easy and on many levels, make a lot of sense.

But as Johnson spoke to the media shortly before Boston’s 111-101 win over Cleveland, it was clear that his return was about more than just taking one more lap around the NBA for old time’s sake.

We like to think about Joe Johnson as one of the NBA’s all-time great scorers where he came into Wednesday’s win ranked 45th on the league’s all-time scorer’s list.

Johnson, who scored two points in less than two minutes in Wednesday’s Celtics win, spent most of his career as one of the league’s premier players, earning seven All-Star nods (2007-2012, 2014) as well as an All-NBA Third team selection in 2010.

And then there were the lucrative, multi-year contracts that according to spotrac.com, have earned him more than $250 million in salary alone.

But Johnson is also a father who in addition to his eight-year-old daughter Justice, also has a 14-year-old son (Gavin) who was around when his dad played but was so young he couldn’t possibly have been able to appreciate his dad’s play the way he can now.

And just like the Celtics signing Johnson has been in many ways a second chance for Johnson and his basketball career, it’s also a second chance of sorts for Johnson’s son to experience first-hand what it was like to be the child of an NBA player.

Johnson said he and Gavin had a conversation about that very topic last month.

“He asked me about a month ago, ‘Dad, when you were playing what was I doing?” Joe Johnson recalled.

His response?

“You were in the back playing in the playroom,” said Joe Johnson. “You weren’t sitting out there watching the game. He (Gavin) kind of kicked himself in the butt a little behind that. But hopefully, he’ll get a chance to come to one of these games.”

And that is the full-circle moment Johnson’s return should be about, a second chance for both father and son.

“My son keeps me going,” Johnson said. “I always have things to fuel me, stay motivated.”