"WHEN KEVIN Johnson was accepted into UC Berkeley, nobody imagined that one day he'd become Sacramento's Mayor Johnson.
Yet, if you could wind back time and stop it at a defining moment, you'd freeze 'KJ''s clock on the first day of an English course he took during his freshman year.
At the time, the mayor was not known as a student. He was a stud baseball and basketball player. So, when he realized he was the only student in the class who didn't know the meaning of the word 'euphemism,' nobody would've been stunned if he wasn't bothered by it."
But he was. And that moment of frustration set the tone for the extraordinary life that was to follow. Not so much that he went on to become one of Cal's all-time greatest basketball players. Not so much that he went on to become one of the Phoenix Suns' all-time greatest basketball players. But because he went on to become one of California's all-time greatest difference makers after his basketball glory days were over.
Most jocks wouldn't have cared that they didn't know a word. Because Johnson did, it's not shocking that his post-NBA career has been extraordinary.
After his stellar career with the Suns (which followed a brief stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers), he returned to his roots to transform Sacramento.