Carmelo Anthony says Joe Johnson was the most underrated 1-on-1 player during his era: "It was like poetry with him"
Carmelo Anthony was one of the most unstoppable scorers in the history of the NBA, especially in 1-on-1 situations. The two points were almost always automatic once Melo got his defender alone on an island.
But while Melo is considered one of the best one-on-one players of his era, he says Joe Johnson was the most underrated one-on-one player of that time. The 10th overall pick of the 2001 NBA Draft is one of the top scorers in NBA history. Johnson played for seven different NBA teams, including the Atlanta Hawks, where he got his iconic nickname.
"He got his name Iso Joe and we still don't give him credit for it," said Melo. "When I used to see him work, it was like poetry with him."
Iso Joe was born in Atlanta
Johnson was always an elite scorer, but when he played in Atlanta, Iso Joe was born. The year the Hawks signed an Arkansas native, they also had the opportunity to draft either Chris Paul or Deron Williams. But they passed on both and picked Marvin Williams at No. 2 overall because they wanted to turn Johnson into their primary ball handler.
Not only did Johnson's assists numbers go up in Atlanta, but his scoring also picked up because his job wasn't just to make plays for his teammates but to manufacture plays when their possessions broke down. And so Iso Joe was born.
"When he was Atlanta Joe when Woody is you know, he's running plays to iso him every single time, and he don't gotta dribble, he just footwork, getting you to lean one way, he don't take more than two, three dribbles. He's a phone booth player. You knew what was coming - tween,tween, hesi, pull. Like every single time…And ain't sh** you could do about it," added Melo.
Johnson turned the Hawks into a playoff team
In Atlanta, Joe flourished and played the best years of his NBA career. Iso Joe played seven years for the Hawks, his longest stint in any city. He averaged 20.9 PPG in those seven seasons, including five consecutive 20-point campaigns to start his Atlanta tenure.
Johnson was named an All-Star in six out of his seven seasons with the Hawks. In 2010, he also made the All-NBA Third Team, marking the only time he earned an All-NBA nod in his career. More importantly, he turned the Hawks into a playoff team.
The Hawks made the playoffs in each of Joe's final five seasons with the team after not making a single postseason appearance since 1999. Meanwhile, the unstoppable Iso Joe finished his career with 20,407 points, making him one of only 51 players in NBA history to score at least 20K points.
