Brandon Johnson finds purpose mentoring Houston youth

The basketball court at Brigate Townhomes in Missouri City hasn’t changed much since Brandon Johnson was a kid dribbling on it from sunup to sundown.

“A number of guys from the neighborhood used to come out here, older guys, and I was the younger guy,” Johnson said, standing on the same blacktop decades later. “The badge of honor was if you had heart.”

Johnson, 39, once had a Division I scholarship and an NBA Summer League roster spot with the Phoenix Suns. Instead, in 2013, he was sentenced to six months in federal custody for conspiring to commit sports bribery tied to point-shaving during his college career at the University of San Diego. He’s back home in Houston, mentoring kids who remind him of himself.

His basketball path started with his older brother, Ron, who switched from football to basketball as a kid because their father loved the sport. “Whatever he was doing, I was doing,” Johnson said. A chance connection through Master P’s Amateur Athletic Union program (AAU), alongside players like Lil Romeo, opened his eyes to a life beyond his neighborhood.

“That exposure just changed my imagination,” he said. “It let me know what’s all out there and what is possible.”

His mother’s incarceration during his childhood forced him and his brothers to be raised largely by each other, and by the time he reached his teenage years, a disagreement with his father over committing to AAU basketball left him without a home.

“I wasn’t a bad kid, I wanted an opportunity,” Johnson said. “I just packed my clothes up, two bags, and left.”

He went on to earn that scholarship to the University of San Diego, help lead the Toreros to the 2008 NCAA Tournament, and graduate in 2010. He was the first in his family to graduate from college. 

Months later, while training with the Suns and the Washington Wizards’ preseason squad, federal agents arrested him in a bribery scheme involving USD games during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. 

He was forever changed after being sentenced to a federal incarceration. 

“I’ve always been in survival mode,” Johnson said. “Being inside there gave me a lot of time to think.”

He said the stillness pushed him toward his faith and forced a reckoning he had avoided for years.

“I realized I had to look in the mirror at my accountability,” he said. “I realized how important decisions are.”

After his release, Johnson played professional basketball for eight years across Europe, South America, and China, but said the work never fully satisfied him. A speaking invitation eventually opened the door to what he now calls his real purpose. Reaching young people who grew up the way he did. 

In 2020, he launched the nonprofit No Script and its AWAKE Program, providing life-skills education across Houston, including a five-year contract to run programming in Harris County juvenile facilities. He has also partnered with Prison Fellowship Angel Tree for five years, connecting children of incarcerated parents with sports camps and community support.

“You can’t go with the old rules; the new rules are here,” said Johnson, noting today’s youth mature faster, given their access to information. “A lot of them just need to hear, man, you’re a good kid. You made a bad decision.”

Johnson’s own sons, Braylon, 7, and Brandon Jr., 19, watched from the sidelines during the interview. A reminder that the mentorship extends into the home. He said raising them is its own education, shaped by an experience most parents don’t share.

“I am the program for my kids,” Johnson said, noting he’s rare among parents in having been to college, the NBA, and prison. His younger son recently asked him directly what landed him in prison, and he said he answered honestly rather than shielding him from it.

“When you talk about breaking cycles, this was it,” Johnson said of watching his sons grow up active in church, without the instability of his own childhood.

His wife, Latasha, said the shift from athlete to advocate happened gradually, not overnight. The two met almost a decade ago when she interviewed him as an ESPN Radio host after a comeback performance at a youth tournament. Years later, she said his focus changed after she became pregnant with their child, and he decided to step away from basketball to build something of his own.

“He became this crazy entrepreneur,” Latasha said. “He built something out of nothing, and to see it grow into what it is today, it’s kind of completely shocking.”

She said what people miss most about Johnson is how much he gives. She described him taking bags of clothes to the halfway house where he once lived, handing out shoes, toys, and food to people rebuilding their own lives.

Johnson says there’s much more in store for the work he’s doing in the community.

“I want to keep showing up for my family, my sons, and for Houston’s kids,” he said. “Without God, my faith, and basketball, all of this wouldn’t have been possible.”