If the Brooklyn Nets are to reach the NBA playoffs after missing last year, Cam Johnson will be a major reason why.

The sixth-year forward, who was traded to Brooklyn from the Phoenix Suns in February 2023, is having a career season in his second full year with the Nets, averaging career bests in points per game (19.1), field goal percentage (48.8%) and minutes per game (31.9) through the All-Star break. He’s started every game he’s played this season (39) for the Nets (20-34), who are just 1.5 games out of the Eastern Conference’s 10th playoff spot coming out of the All-Star break.

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The two best games of Johnson’s career came in back-to-back outings this season — a 34-point performance in a Nov. 19 win over the Charlotte Hornets where he made six 3-pointers, and a 37-point night on Nov. 22 against the Philadelphia 76ers where he hit nine 3s.

Cam Johnson's last three games:

– 93 points (career-high in a three-game stretch)
– 32-for-53 FG (60.4%)
– 19-for-32 3FG (59.4%) pic.twitter.com/HzhiE47czA

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) November 23, 2024

There was talk about Brooklyn moving Johnson at the trade deadline Feb. 6, but the Nets ultimately opted to keep him for a push to the playoffs. Johnson signed a four-year contract extension with Brooklyn in June 2023.

Earlier this season, he appeared on the “Travis Hearn Podcast,” talking with his former team chaplain in Phoenix about faith and his basketball career. A star in college at Pitt and North Carolina, Johnson’s had high expectations placed on him since being drafted No. 11 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2019. A draft-night trade sent him to the Suns, where he spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career.

He says his faith has helped him navigate his career.

“It’s like being a believer in any aspect of life,” Johnson said on the podcast. “Any job you do, there’s going to be people whose views align with yours. There’s going to be people whose views don’t align with yours. For me personally, [faith] is the motivation, what keeps me going, what keeps me steady, what keeps me not too high and not too low.

“There’s a lot of stressors. There’s a lot of things that throw you off course in professional sports. Some might call it pressure. But that’s how I use perspective and use faith to level everything out and keep going.”

Though he wears No. 2 now with the Nets, he’s worn No. 23 for most of his career. It’s somewhat of a nod to hoops and UNC legend Michael Jordan, but more importantly it’s a reference to his favorite chapter of the Bible, Psalm 23, one of the most well-known passages in Scripture:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and you staff, they comfort me.

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

He displays the passage his Instagram bio and wearing the number has given him a chance to share why he wears it.

“It comes from my grandma,” Johnson said during a press conference in 2023. “My grandma, she’s a prayer warrior to the fullest extent, and she kind of told my dad to use this Bible verse as a prayer every time you go into a game, into a competition, into an important meeting, whatever it may be. And he instilled that down into me.”

Johnson has long been a believer, and he said that being able to regularly attend chapel services with Hearn and other NBA chaplains has been instrumental in helping him grow in his faith while in the NBA, since he rarely has Sundays off during the season to attend church. Chapels in the NBA are held one hour before every game, last 15 minutes, and are open to players and coaches from both teams. Those services have also helped Johnson build a community of other believers around the league.

“It’s like doses of church before every game. Doses of the Word. Doses of faith,” he said on the podcast. “Gathering with like-minded people. Gathering with teammates. Gathering with people from the other team. Gathering with pastors, chaplains. You get such a wide perspective. You get such different types of messages coming from different types of people from different backgrounds. I think it’s such a great thing. It’s automatically part of my pre-game routine.”

Halfway through the 2023-24 season, Johnson started journaling at each chapel session, partly as a way to remember lessons but also because teammates who couldn’t attend regularly asked him for a summary of what was taught. He’s kept up that practice this season.

“What I’ve come to see is that I go back to it,” he said. “I read them over again. I highlight the things in my Bible. It keeps me really engaged in the Word when life around it is always so busy. That’s the best tool for any professional athlete, because they all have their own versions of chapel.”

The Nets return to action Thursday night at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.

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