Kevin Maurice Johnson (born March 4, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player and politician who served as the 55th mayor of Sacramento, California from 2008 to 2016.

After a stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers during a portion of his rookie year, the point guard played as a member of the Phoenix Suns for the remainder of his NBA career.

During his 12-year playing career, Johnson was a three-time NBA All-Star as well as four-time second team All-NBA selection and held numerous records for the Phoenix Suns organization.

[2] At the University of California, Berkeley, Johnson was named a two-time All-Pac-10 Conference player and an honorable-mention All-American by the Associated Press.

[6][7] Johnson was named to the Pac-10's All-Conference First Team in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 17.2 points and 5 assists in his final year.

He led Cal to the program's first post-season appearances in 26 seasons with NIT bids in 1986 and 1987 and was the first player in the Pac-10 Conference to post a triple-double.

Following his senior season of college basketball, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Johnson with the seventh pick in the 1987 NBA draft.

[12] Adjusting quickly to the change of scenery and much-increased playing time, Johnson excelled and the league named him the NBA Rookie of the Month for April 1988 as he averaged 15.1 points, an 86.4% free throw percentage, 10.6 assists, and 5.6 rebounds.

's quiet way of honoring teammate Mark West, the Suns' stoic, largely unrecognized center who thanklessly executed the dirty work on the glass and in the paint.

[2] The previous spring in the 1990 Western Conference Semifinals, Johnson led the Suns past Magic's league-best, 63-win Los Angeles Lakers, four games to one.

Johnson made the playoffs every year of his career after his rookie season, reversing the fortunes of the perennially losing Phoenix Suns.

The 1992–93 Suns, led by Johnson and new teammate Charles Barkley, posted an NBA-best 62–20 record and managed to make it to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls four games to two.

When diligent off-season workouts during the summer of 1996 failed to erase the abdominal and groin pain that had been plaguing Johnson since the middle of the last season, the Suns' doctors finally diagnosed the second hernia just before the start of training camp in the fall of 1996.

In game four of the previous year's series with Houston, Johnson completed a remarkable play, driving the baseline and dunking over Rockets' center Hakeem Olajuwon.

[citation needed] In 1989, while still an NBA player, Johnson founded St. HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) as an after-school program for kids in his native Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California.

The Development Corporation has enabled the renovation of a number of projects including a historic bank building that is now a local U.S. Bank branch, a Victorian house that has been converted to office space, and a 25,000 square foot art gallery and retail complex that includes the Guild Theater and 40 Acres Art Gallery.

[24] But by January 2003, Johnson had raised seed money from the Gates Foundation and drafted a petition to reopen Sac High as an independent charter school.

Since 2007, the decision to expand St. HOPE to New York has been taught as a case study in the Entrepreneurship in Education Reform class at Harvard Business School.

[32] On June 4, 2008, Kevin Johnson, who led by 8 percentage points, forced a runoff election for mayor versus the two-term incumbent.

In response to this commitment, Sacramento was chosen by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as the first city in the nation to pilot the "Any Given Child" program.

[43] By 2011, 2,350 households were moved into permanent housing and Sacramento was awarded approximately $6 million through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program.

"[48] Sacramento was selected by President Obama to participate in the Better Buildings Challenge which provides federal investment to achieve energy efficiency.

Think Big oversees progress at the downtown Railyards, an area that has been left unutilized since the 1980s and is currently one of the largest urban infill project in the country.

[52] The City-Schools Collaborative was launched to better align city services with school districts to maximize resources to support public education.

[57] Johnson was endorsed by Sacramento City Council members Angelique Ashby (Vice Mayor), Steve Cohn, and Jay Schenirer.

[67] On April 16, 2008, rival mayoral candidate Leonard Padilla distributed a 2007 report of similar allegations made against Johnson at St. HOPE Sacramento High School; these accusations were investigated by local police, but no charges were filed.

[72] In settlement, St. HOPE Academy acknowledged not adequately documenting a portion of its AmeriCorps grant expenditures, and the Corporation for National and Community Service terminated its September 24, 2008 suspension of St. HOPE Academy and Johnson from receiving federal funds, ending questions about Sacramento's eligibility to receive federal stimulus funds.

[72] In 2007, The Sacramento Bee investigated Johnson's real estate holdings in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento and found that more than half the properties owned by Johnson and his entities had been cited for various code violations, including fire risk from overgrown vegetation, dead animals, junk and debris on the properties, as well as decaying and fire-damaged buildings.

A local group, Oak Park United against Slumlords (OPUS), complained that Johnson was "stopping progress" in the neighborhood by refusing to develop some of its key properties.

[73][74] Johnson attended a charity event at Sacramento Charter High School on September 21, 2016, when a man approached him and hit him in the face with a pie.