AUBURN, Ala. – Doug Amos hosts the MAX Roundtable on ESPN 107.5 The Ticket in Montgomery. He's also a huge Alabama fan. But this season he's pulling for Auburn basketball because of the friendship formed with junior guard Jamal Johnson.
Johnson, the elder statesman on this year's Auburn team, did an internship with Amos and his crew in the fall. He learned how to edit audio, how to run the board and produce the show. He took calls and visited with callers before they went on air. He even went on air himself and talked sports, answered questions from callers and traded jabs with Amos on Alabama and Auburn.
"I feel like that internship was probably the best internship I could have ever asked for," Johnson said. "They welcomed me in, and I got a chance to talk on the radio without a script, learn from them. And just being able to hang out with them, talk about sports and learn how to produce a whole station, it was cool."
"I can honestly tell you there was not one moment that wasn't fun for all of us with Jamal involved," Amos said. "It was that much fun. We loved Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because those were the days Jamal came."
Jamal Johnson poses with Doug Amos (bottom right) and his radio team.
Since Johnson arrived on the Plains in 2018, he's seen his role on the court grow every year. He sat out his first year after transferring from Memphis and learned from Bryce Brown. Last year, he played behind Samir Doughty and tried to take in everything he could. This year, he's playing more minutes than he ever has and has responded with a team-leading 20.5 points per game in the first two SEC games.
But his growth hasn't only come as a player on the court. Johnson has grown as a leader for this Auburn team, and he's grown as a man both on and off the court. In December, he graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in Communications.
"It was very important to me," he said. "I knew coming in the main thing I wanted to do was to get my degree and play the game I love. But mainly it was to get my degree. I take pride in my academics. I take pride more than the average student-athlete, and it means a lot to me to graduate from Auburn University."
"He's been in the program for three years now," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. "He's got a lot of voice in the locker room, and that's a good thing because he's such a great kid. He's already graduated from school. He's a smart young man and a hard worker. It's just wonderful to see somebody like that pay their dues and stay right and stay ready."
Johnson has already started on a master's degree in Higher Education with an emphasis on Sports Management and has options for when he's done playing basketball.
For starters, the radio internship might have helped pave the way for a career in sports broadcasting where Johnson has thought about the possibility of following in the footsteps of fellow Auburn alums Charles Barkley and Daymeon Fishback. He's also interested in the business and front office side of athletics and would love an opportunity to work for an NBA team one day.
Regardless of the path he takes after basketball, Johnson will continue to positively impact those around him just like he did with Amos, Darrell Dapprich, Charlie Trotman, Bill Edmondson and the whole team at ESPN 107.5.
"You can tell when somebody's doing something because they have to do it and the difference when somebody is doing something because they really want to do it and because they're enjoying it," Amos said. "There's a totally different attitude when that happens. That was very evident with Jamal. He just really became a friend."
When Auburn hosts Alabama on the hardwood this Saturday, Amos has already gone on air and said if it's a tie game and the clock is running down and Johnson pulls up for the winning shot, he hopes it goes in.
"If you've known me, that would speak volumes," Amos said.
