The Dior Johnson Blog: Life at Oak Hill, Social Injustice and More

Johnson said the time is now for social change in this country.

Author:
Dior Johnson
Publish date:
Sep 1, 2020

Dior Johnson is a five-star point guard in the 2022 class who dominated the competition last summer and throughout the high school season. Now at Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.), Johnson, a Syracuse commit, has agreed to give Sports Illustrated exclusive access into his world by chronicling intimate details about his life on and off the court in a blog.

What’s up world, Dior here reporting live from my dorm at Oak Hill, tapping back in with my blog!

Life here is different, in a good way.

It’s basketball, school, woods and that’s it! Haha!

Being here at Oak Hill teaches a lot of discipline and it really forces you to get close to your teammates. We’re all happy to be working together and getting back into a routine with school and the game that we all love.

Workouts are at a high level, weights and then on the court. We do it in two groups and switch; we’re not competing yet, but I can’t wait until we get into that in a couple weeks.

I love our team. I think we can be really good, first of all because we have great communication. We all have a chemistry that hits a little different.

We have really good guards and a 7-foot-2 big who’s really active.

It’s wild because when everyone first heard about summer ball being cancelled we were all upset because we all wanted to be out there playing and getting better, but, honestly, my game has grown so much this summer just working out and playing with NBA guys all summer.

I played a lot of pickup with Paul George, Reggie Jackson, Kawhi Leonard and those guys; no one knew because there weren’t any cameras or anything.

Playing with those guys taught me a lot about how to slow the game down and just learn how to play “basketball” instead of just playing like a high school guard.

I know everyone is talking about me potentially reclassifying and things like that, but I’m not sure on that at this time. I think people will just have to find that out on the fly.

I wanted to really be focused starting out here at Oak Hill, so I decided to delete my Instagram for now. I just felt like it was pointless to have it now because we’re not playing and not getting posted from games or anything like that.

The first night I was here, I was up for hours just looking at it and I didn’t want that to be a distraction so I decided to turn it off until basketball came back.

I kept my Twitter because it shows me news and everything that’s going on in the world.

I’m locked in.

I love the school and the classes here too.

Like I said, you have to embrace the school and basketball culture here at Oak Hill; it’s the best there is.

We walk around with masks on and all of the players were tested for COVID and practice social distancing and stuff like that.

It’s really done the right way here. It’s like the NBA bubble here. It’s very safe.

I have to say that I was proud to see the NBA guys boycott the games last week. Change is so needed right now, and athletes have so much power!

I do believe that we have to keep making these real steps and take bigger and bigger steps until we get the change most of us are looking for.

It’s wild because my great grandma was telling me about all the things she went through and how she had to pick cotton and things like that.

I want our generation to make the change for equality, so our kids won’t have to go through all of this; I just feel like the time is now, and we all need to be doing our part.

Everything is great with me and the staff at Syracuse; unfortunately, I can’t get down there to visit with everything going on, but things are good.

I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about recruitment.

So on the music, you know I’m listening to Lil Baby, G Herbo, 50 Cent, Pop Smoke (RIP), NBA YoungBoy, Sheff G, Sleepy Hallow and King Von right now.

I’ve got on to the sticks a lot more now too.

I play Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat.

I’m also reading a lot of books; right now I’m reading the “The Twelve Universal Laws of Success” by Herbert Harris and “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins.

I would recommend them both, so check those out!

OK, y’all I’ve gotta get going, but I appreciate you reading.

Make sure you check back soon for the next blog and stay safe out there.

Don’t forget to follow Dior Johnson:

Twitter: @3Diorjohnson