Tre Johnson has been on the NBA radar for a while now. He was ranked No. 5 in the nation by ESPN, 247Sports Composite, and Rivals for the class of 2024. Johnson is a 6-foot-5 guard who scored 2,563 career points during his four-year prep career. He finished his senior year at Link Academy after playing his first three seasons at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas.
During his time at Lake Highlands, he earned both Mr. Basketball in Texas and MaxPreps National Junior of the Year.
From the moment he was recruited, Texas knew his scoring was no fluke. And now, with his NBA Draft selection, that is truer than ever. To make things better, an old clip from college has gained life again.
Sean Miller’s Bizarre High-Five with Tre Johnson Resurfaces on Draft Night
Draft night at Barclays Center was everything the hoops fandom loves. Johnson, in a sleek shorts-suit combo, shook hands, got hugs, and went sixth overall to the Washington Wizards.
But just as he climbed onto that stage, the Johnson fandom took a moment to dig up forgotten gold. The gold was nothing but the bizarre moment with coach Sean Miller that suddenly felt like a premonition.
CBB insider, Jon Rothstein summed it up as he wrote, “True Story: Tre Johnson was on such a heater in the First Four when Texas played Xavier that Sean Miller, who was coaching Xavier and ironically is now coaching Texas, reached out and slapped Johnson’s hand in the middle of the game.”
Bruh Sean Miller was celebrating with Tre during the game. He knew 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/S0M0ksmoZz
— Big On Basketball 🤘🏽 (@BigOnBasketball) March 23, 2025
In a rather contested First Four NCAA tournament game on March 19, 2025, Johnson hit a ridiculous fadeaway three. And he decided to run back down the court, flexing. Weirdly enough, he passed the Xavier bench, where Sean Miller, who was then coaching against him, instinctively reached out for a high-five, and that too in the middle of the game.
Perhaps Miller knew where he was going just six days later. Six days later, Miller was introduced as the new head coach of the Texas Longhorns. With Johnson now off to the NBA and Miller in Johnson’s old locker room, the moment has aged like fine, very strange wine.
Johnson’s Scoring Instincts are Unmatched
That night, Johnson had scorched Xavier for 23 points. It is the same scoring instinct that led him to break Kevin Durant’s Texas freshman single-game record with a 39-point performance against Arkansas on February 26, 2025.
It also led him to lead all freshmen in scoring and the SEC in scoring at 19.9 points per game. To add on, Johnson also has a knockdown three-point percentage of 39.7% from deep. So it is no surprise that the Wizards wanted that kind of bucket-getter in their rebuild plans.
And even though fans joked that Miller high-fived his way out of that game and into a new job, the larger picture says Johnson’s talent made even the opposing coach forget what team he was on.
With his NBA draft selection, Johnson joins a growing list of Link Academy alums in the NBA. And he enters a Washington Wizards team that is desperate to build an offensive identity. He follows Jordan Walsh, who plays for the Boston Celtics, Ja’Kobe Walter, who plays for the Toronto Raptors, and Julian Phillips, who plays for the Chicago Bulls.