Brighton Bears may have continued to languish in mediocrity this term but for Wilbur Johnson, it has been a break-out season on the south coast.

The 26-year-old American has been averaging over 18 points and nearly nine rebounds per game since he came to the Bears, following a three-year spell as an unheralded role player in Sheffield.

Wilbur - who made his first BBL All-Star Game appearance in January - is happy with how he is playing at the moment but admits that has not always been the case this season. 

"Over the last month and a half I have been pleased. I started off well and then there was a month when I kind of struggled and I was missing shots. I think that was when I first started getting down, losing had an effect on my game for a little while and I wasn't so enthusiastic about playing. 

"Now, I have been able to pick it up and I'm pretty pleased with my game, although there are still a couple of things that I need to work on. But, for the most part, I take the season, individually, as a success."

Of course, while personal performances might add up to personal success, that has not transferred into team success this season and Johnson confesses the inevitable frustration that has accompanied that.

"It's a new experience for me to lose, because I have never been on a losing team in my career. It's hard, because I feel that we should have more wins than we do. Coming from a winning organisation at Sheffield, and at college and high school, it's hard to deal with losing. Luckily for me, I have my wife and my daughter here and it makes it easier, having that support group behind me. 

"Going into the season, I kind of expected not to have a winning season, although I didn't really expect us to lose as much as we have, but I knew it would be a change. I took it upon myself, mentally, to try to become a better player, as far as being a leader and coping with different situations, because you can't win in your whole career anyway. I was kind of prepared for it, although it is still hard.”

Nonetheless, Johnson underlines that Bears have been competitive this season but is still able to explain their lack of victories.

"For one, we are young, so we don't really know how to win, because we don't really have anybody who has been on a winning team. When it gets down to the last five or six minutes, I don't think we know how to pull those games out. The second reason, is that when things start to go bad, confidence gets down. It seems like we always get down in the first or second quarter by five, six or seven points and once that happens I guess we lose our edge and intensity and it's all downhill - it just snowballs.

"But it's not as bad as it could be. I have heard about teams who have been losing and fighting amongst each other and it's all gone bad, but we haven't been doing that. You can tell that it is a little different from how it was at the beginning of the season, when hopes are high and play-off dreams are in the air. Right now, going into each game, we feel as though we can win, but still the losses take their toll."

Naturally, at least part of that frustration has come because of the personal and team glory that Wilbur has enjoyed in the past. While with Sheffield, he picked up four winner’s medals and he's honest to admit that experience makes this current one much harder to bear.

However, having now experienced the good and the bad in basketball, Wilbur Johnson is a better player and a stronger person, or so he claims.

"It will definitely make me a better player. When I do get back to a winning organisation, I will be better off for this. It got to the point at Sheffield, where we were almost taking it for granted. We would go to the uni-ball final or another final and say 'Okay, whatever!'. I appreciated it in my first year, but by the time I got to my last year, being at the top of the conference you were expected to win and you thought you were always going to beat everybody. 

"But now, I'm seeing the other end of the table and it's not that easy. So, I think in future years, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, when I'm having success I have got to appreciate it. You have to cherish it while you're there!"

He plans to put this experience to use and get back to winning ways. But, more than that, he plans to truly savour the success. "Next year, I want to be on a winning team, whether it be Brighton or somewhere else, and I want to enjoy being top of the league, no matter where I am playing."

After that, he has a clear picture of where his future lies once he hangs up his boots. 

"I want to stay in sport, in terms of maybe management or marketing, maybe with one of the professional sports teams in Philadelphia, like the Eagles or the Sixers and working behind the scenes in advertising or something like that. If I wasn't playing basketball, I'd be behind the scenes at a club like that now."

Of course, there's plenty of work that needs to be done before Johnson considers his long-term future.

"We are going to just take one game at a time, try to get a couple of wins so we can finish up on a positive note and then I'll see how things turn out for next season."

(BBL)

 

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