Tennessee State head men's basketball coach Nolan Smith announced the addition of former NBA veteran and nationally acclaimed player DerMarr Johnson as an assistant coach for the 2025-26 season.
Johnson brings more than 16 years of professional playing experience, including seven seasons in the NBA, along with key coaching and player development roles at the collegiate level.
A Washington, D.C., native, Johnson most recently spent two seasons on staff at West Virginia (2022–24) after two years at the University of Cincinnati, where he served as the program's director of player development. In that role, he oversaw individual development plans and alumni engagement for the Bearcats.
"He comes here with a hunger to be a part of something big," Smith said. "He's ready to teach, lead, motivate and build. He comes from winning and is the perfect piece for this staff and this university to help establish a culture of winning. At 6-foot-9, Coach was one of the original unicorns in the game of basketball and could do everything with the ball. He has the blueprint to now teach it to the current and future Tigers. Coach Johnson is a longtime friend of mine, and we are ready to get to work for TSU and Nashville."
As a player, Johnson rose to national prominence as one of the top prospects in the country. At Maine Central Institute, he was named Parade National High School Player of the Year in 1999 and earned consensus recognition as a McDonald's, Parade Magazine and USA Today All-American. He went on to play one season under Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins at Cincinnati (1999–2000), averaging 13.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Johnson was named Conference USA Freshman of the Year and helped lead the Bearcats to a 29-4 record, a No. 1 national ranking for 12 weeks, and the Conference USA regular-season championship on a team that featured national player of the year Kenyon Martin.
Johnson declared for the 2000 NBA Draft and was selected sixth overall by the Atlanta Hawks. Over the next seven seasons, he played for the Hawks, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, appearing in 344 games with 136 starts. His career was marked by resilience after returning from a serious automobile accident in which he fractured four vertebrae in his neck following his second season.
After his NBA career, Johnson continued playing professionally overseas until 2016, competing in China, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Colombia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Argentina, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
Following retirement, Johnson returned to Cincinnati in 2017 as a student assistant coach and completed his undergraduate degree in 2019, launching his collegiate coaching career.
Smith said Johnson's experience and leadership make him an ideal fit for the Tigers.
