Temeka Johnson
New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame
Basketball, 1996-2018
Bonnabel HS/LSU/WNBA
Inducted: 2025
Photo Courtesy of LSU Athletics.
The New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame features 30 inductees that have been enshrined primarily for their basketball-playing accomplishments (through 2025). There are legends from the high school, college, and professional ranks, but less than a dozen began their careers in New Orleans and made significant impacts at all three levels.
One of those is Temeka Johnson, who over a 21-year playing career at Bonnabel High School, LSU, and in the professional ranks, built a résumé which rivals that of any basketball player in New Orleans history. Consider the list of highlights:
- Four-time high school all-state selection
- High school state finalist
- All-American at a powerhouse college
- Top collegiate point guard in the nation
- Two Final Fours
- Fifth all-time in NCAA assists (at graduation)
- 11-year WNBA career
- WNBA Rookie of the Year
- WNBA Championship
- FIBA Euro Cup Championship
“I was just having fun doing what I love to do,” Johnson said about her success on the basketball court. “For me, success is being the best version of yourself that you can be. That’s an everyday challenge. It’s an everyday journey to become the best version of yourself. Accomplishing that every day, one day at a time, is the key to success.”
Her four years at Bonnabel High School (1996-2000) alone are enough to warrant inclusion in the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.
She was a four-time all-state selection and a USA Today honorable mention All-USA selection after leading the Bruins to a 111-20 record. She was also a three-time all-metro honoree and a three-time district MVP as she scored 2,952 points with 1,042 assists in her career. Johnson, who once recorded a quadruple-double in a game with 62 points, 11 assists, 10 steals and 10 rebounds, helped Bonnabel advance to the Class 5A state tournament championship game in 2000. She also earned three letters in track.
“She was an unbelievable player, and a better person. After a while, you just got used to seeing extraordinary,” said Lee MacAlester, her high school coach at Bonnabel. “I first saw her play when she was in third grade [at Greenlawn Terrace]. Every day I’d tell her, ‘Don’t forget me at Bonnabel!’”
After her exceptional high school tenure, she was a coveted recruit throughout the country, and a critical focus of the recruiting efforts of Sue Gunter and the LSU coaching staff.
“We saw the leadership gene in Temeka, she was not just an individual player with a great skillset, but she made all the players around her better,” said longtime LSU assistant coach Bob Starkey, who was heavily involved in her recruitment. “She may have been short in stature, but she was big in the way she played; she was physical and aggressive. Her size didn’t bother her, so it didn’t bother us.”
The Tiger staff’s evaluation was spot-on. She was inserted into the starting lineup immediately as a true freshman and would go on to start 127 straight games. The 5-3 Johnson helped the Tigers reach the Final Four in both 2004 and 2005 to jump start a five-year Final Four run for LSU. She finished her career as the only player in school history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists – her 945 career assists remain the SEC all-time record and rank No. 11 all-time in NCAA history (through 2025). At graduation her 1,426 career points were 12th all-time at LSU, and her 238 steals ranked sixth all-time.
Photo Courtesy of LSU Athletics.
As a senior in 2004-05, she earned the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation and was a finalist for the Women’s Wooden Award as the top overall player. She was also First-Team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association as well as a Second-Team All-American by the Associated Press.
She also proved herself to be at her best in critical situations – she registered a career-best 28 points in LSU’s SEC title clinching victory over Arkansas and then dished a school record 17 assists against Georgia in the SEC Tournament.
“I was small and always came up against so many people that always told me what I COULDN’T do,” Johnson said. “That has made me feel that every area of my life is a success. Graduating from LSU, having an opportunity to play with some of the best, being able to play for [legendary LSU coach] Sue Gunter, helping to bring excitement and energy to Baton Rouge when I was playing, helping to grow women’s basketball. I’m proud to have played my position as small as I was to the best of my ability, to give other people hope.”
While her basketball accomplishments at LSU hold a special place in her heart, her proudest moment was graduating, especially with a grandmother, Jewel Johnson, who served as a teacher for over 30 years and who Johnson described as “the backbone of the family.”
“My graduation from LSU was a pivotal moment in my life and for my family,” she said. “My grandmother and my parents were proud of my basketball accomplishments, but ore than anything, they loved that I graduated from college.”
Photo Courtesy of LSU Athletics.
Johnson was selected No. 6 overall in the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics and, just as in college, she quickly made her mark in the professional ranks. She started all 34 games for the Mystics and tallied more assists than any player in the league (177) while topping all rookies in scoring, assists, steals, and minutes played as she was a near-unanimous selection for the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year honor.
She would play 11 years in the WNBA, scoring 2,620 points to go with 1,382 assists, 889 rebounds and 317 steals in 327 games. She also has the distinction of being the shortest player in league history to record as triple double as she had 13 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds in a 2014 game with the Seattle Storm.
“One of my proudest moments was winning the WNBA Championship in Phoenix [in 2009],” Johnson said. “I lost my grandmother the year before. Watching the woman that I spent so much of my life with being ill and there was nothing I could do to help her was very challenging and gave me a different perspective. I very much considered retiring early, but then I decided to play and dedicate my next season to her. I signed with Phoenix and we won the championship. That meant so much to me to do that in her memory.”
Johnson also played professionally overseas, spending seasons in Israel, Poland, Russia, and Spain. She won the FIBA Euro Cup Championship in 2012 while playing for Russia’s Dynamo Kursk. She retired following an Achilles injury during the 2017-18 season in Spain.
Following her playing career, she transitioned into coaching. In her first season of coaching, she directed McKinley High School in Baton Rouge to a 19-11 record and a trip to the LHSAA Division II semifinals in 2019-20. She then transitioned to John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, located just a mile from the Jesse Owens Gym where she first learned the game. She led the Patriots to back-to-back state titles in 2021 and 2022 before moving into the collegiate ranks as an assistant coach at Western Kentucky.
“When I was playing, all types of people – young, old, tall, short, plus size – so many would tell me that watching me play made them feel capable of doing anything,” Johnson said. “Giving people hope inspired me to form my foundation – Heaven Opens People’s Eyes, or H.O.P.E. Being able to give back, to use my platform to give back to underserved communities, to give hope to those that may need it is important to me. I was told so many times that I gave people hope. I want to bring that to as many people as possible.”
The H.O.P.E. Foundation’s mission is to provide inspiration to youth, families and communities, to help them lead a more emotionally healthy lifestyle. H.O.P.E. provides the tools necessary to increase self-esteem, physical activity and a unified community spirit.
Johnson is also an author and has published four children’s books, including one in Spanish.
“The kids need to know there are people like them who have made it, even when people say you can't do it,” Johnson said. “The [books] are about decision-making in everyday life, in extracurricular activities, sports and getting chores done at home.”
