The late John Johnson, the father of San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson, starred for the Hawkeye men in the early 1970s.
Iowa men's basketball doesn't usually have much in common with the NBA Finals, but that's not the case this year.
The 2026 clash between the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks and Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs doesn't feature a former Hawkeye on either roster, but Iowa is forever embedded in the hearts of a crucial member of one of the coaching staffs.
As Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson prepares to coach in his first NBA Finals, he's definitely got a lot on his plate. San Antonio is coming off a hard-fought Western Conference Final victory, where it outlasted the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014.
Few expected the young Spurs team to get this far in the postseason, but Johnson's job is just beginning. The Knicks haven't lost a postseason game since Game 3 in the first round and seek their first NBA crown in 53 years.
Preparing for this heavyweight fight won't be easy for Johnson and his coaching staff, but there's also likely an emotional aspect for Johnson, too. His late father, John Johnson, had a successful 12-year NBA career with four squads, highlighted by a championship run with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979.
John was a two-time NBA All-Star and is commonly known for his professional career, but many people don't realize the impact he made during his collegiate tenure with Iowa men's basketball.
John, 6-foot-7 inches tall, began his college career at Northwest College, a small community college in Powell, Wyoming. After two seasons there, he transferred to Iowa ahead of the 1968-69 season.
The Hawkeyes managed just a 12-12 record under future Hall of Fame coach Ralph Miller that year, but John and Co. turned it up in 1969-70. Iowa dominated the Big Ten, finishing with a perfect 14-0 record in league play to secure the outright regular season crown, something no Hawkeye basketball team has won an outright crown since.
John averaged 27.9 points per game to lead the Hawks in scoring and rebounding, and his game outputs of 49 and 46 points remain Iowa records.
Iowa's incredible regular season earned it a berth in the NCAA tournament, where it was placed in the semifinals of the Mideast Region (the NCAA tournament didn't seed teams until 1979). The Hawkeyes just needed to win two games to reach the Final Four, but that didn't happen.
Iowa's reward for earning a bye to the Sweet 16 round was having to play the 24-1 Jacksonville Dolphins. The Hawkeyes trailed by eight points with under five minutes to play, but Fred Brown (who would go on to be a SuperSonics legend himself) gave Iowa a 103-102 lead with 18 seconds left.
The Hawkeyes needed one more stop to win, but Jacksonville big man Pembrook Burrows broke their hearts with a game-winning tip-in in the final seconds. Iowa finished the year 20-5 after defeating Notre Dame in the consolation game.
The 1970 team remains a big "what-if?" among older Hawkeye fans, but the memories that John and the rest of the team (commonly referred as the "Six-Pack") will last forever.
Fifty-six years later, the next chapter of the Johnson legacy will be written, as Mitch and the Spurs open the 2026 NBA Finals with Game 1 on Wednesday evening.
First Summer Giveaway is OPEN!
Looking for some cool Hawkeye swag to wear during the summer months? Look no further! HawkeyeRoundtable.com will be giving away prizes to lucky members throughout the summer and all you have to enter is follow these very easy and quick (under a minute) instructions to join.
Click here to join the contest!
HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]
