RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 23: Samson Johnson #35 of the Connecticut Huskies attempts a free throw in the second round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Florida Gators at Lenovo Center.
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - MARCH 23: Samson Johnson #35 of the Connecticut Huskies attempts a free throw in the second round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Florida Gators at Lenovo Center.
Donovan Clingan will be reunited with a former UConn men's basketball teammate, as Samson Johnson signed with the Portland Trail Blazers Monday.
Johnson's RBA Showcase agency announced the move Monday on social media, which the player confirmed on his Instagram story. On Friday, Portland's NBA G League affiliate, the Rip City Remix, announced that the team obtained Johnson's player rights in a trade with the Noblesville Boom, exchanging Andrew Carr, Jamiya Neal and a 2027 second-round pick.
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The 6-foot-10 center was not selected in the 2025 NBA Draft after a four-year career with UConn and signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Indiana Pacers in June. Johnson was waived by the Pacers four months later and signed with Noblesville, the organization's G League affiliate. He was a nearly automatic scorer for the Boom last season at the rim with a 70.3 field-goal percentage, leading all G League players with a minimum of 30 games played, while averaging 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.
Johnson hails from Togo and ventured from Senegal to Florida and eventually to New Jersey to pursue his basketball dreams, teaming up with future UConn teammate and fellow West African native Adama Sanogo at parochial powerhouse The Patrick School. After an often-virtual college recruitment process during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson committed to UConn in November 2020, joining Rahsool Diggins and Jordan Hawkins in the Huskies' 2021 class.
He played sparingly during his first two seasons with the program, including the program's national championship run in 2023, before earning an expanded role as Clingan's backup as UConn defended its NCAA Tournament title. Clingan was selected No. 7 overall in the NBA Draft that summer and has since blossomed into one of the league's premier rebounders.
Finally, Johnson earned a starting role in Storrs as a senior, although he split minutes fairly evenly with Michigan transfer Tarris Reed Jr. at the center position. He led the Big East in offensive rating, also ranking inside the top 5 for offensive rebounding rate, block percentage and field-goal percentage, but he often struggled with fouling.
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Despite a disappointing 2024-25 season for the Huskies, Johnson set the program's all-time wins record in March as UConn outlasted Oklahoma for a win in the NCAA Tournament First Round. Johnson lasted less than a year in the UConn record books, however, as Alex Karaban snatched the wins record this past February.