Louisville's former G League guard, London Johnson, will play this season

London Johnson, a former G League player who recently signed with Louisville, will play this season for the Cardinals.

Johnson signed with Louisville back in October with the expectation that the 21-year-old would redshirt the 2025-26 season before making his debut in 2026-27. However, according to On3’s Joe Tipton, Johnson will instead come out of his redshirt and suit up to play for the Cardinals. UL confirmed the news soon after, adding that Johnson will dress and be available to play in Saturday’s home game against Boston College (noon ET | The CW Network).

Johnson’s addition to this season’s Louisville roster comes on the heels of star guard Mikel Brown Jr. being sidelined due to a nagging back injury. Brown has missed five straight games for the Cards. A 6-foot-3 guard, Johnson spent the last three seasons in the G League, averaging 3.1 points in 14.4 minutes per outing on 40 percent overall shooting last season.

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— Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) January 10, 2026

Johnson was originally a four-star recruit out of the 2022 high school cycle before opting for the G League Ignite (which is now defunct, but was coached at the time by current Kentucky assistant Jason Hart) over the college route at the time. The Georgia native played two seasons under Hart for the G League Ignite (2022-23, 2023-24) before spending the 2024-25 season with the Cleveland Charge and Maine Celtics in the G League.

Despite having three years of professional basketball under his belt, Johnson never played in an NBA game or signed an NBA contract — the one line the NCAA has yet to cross in these unprecedented eligibility cases.

Of note, on Christmas Eve, the NCAA cleared center James Nnaji, the 31st overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, to sign with Baylor. Nnaji did not sign an NBA contract, which paved the way for him to play in college. That move drew the ire of some prominent college basketball coaches, including Tom Izzo and John Calipari. Nnaji has appeared in two games for the Bears this season, averaging 3.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in 16 minutes per outing off the bench.

On top of that, we’ve also seen Santa Clara sign Thierry Darlan, Johnson’s Ignite teammate. BYU landed former Westchester Knicks big man Abdullah Ahmed, while Ole Miss added former G League guard TJ Clark. Kentucky head coach Mark Pope hasn’t completely shut down the idea of potentially doing something similar, but UK has yet to be linked to any former G League players.

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