Johns led the Antelopes to the NAIA men's basketball championship in 1988 and was selected as the most valuable player of the tournament.

Johns was selected in the third round of the 1988 NBA draft by his hometown Phoenix Suns but did not make the team.

On December 5, 1995, he drove his car at a high speed into a wall in Phoenix, Arizona, killing himself and his sister, Deborah Peters, who was a passenger.

[2] He turned himself into the starting power forward and led the junior varsity team to a 19–1 record during the 1981–82 season.

[6] Johns scored 41 points in the championship game to defeat the Auburn Montgomery Warhawks 88–86, including the winning basket when he hit a jump shot with two seconds remaining in overtime.

[2] He signed with the Suns on September 27, 1988,[9] after he performed well during pre-camp workouts and was considered as a strong candidate to make the team.

"[2] In the week before his death, Johns visited his high school basketball coach to enquire about a job as a security guard and claimed that he would get his position at Grand Canyon back.

[2] On December 5, 1995, Johns left the house of his mother and drove away in his car with Deborah Peters as a passenger.

[14] Police claimed that Johns ran a stop sign and drove into a concrete retaining wall at over 80 miles per hour (130 km/h).