Carldell Johnson

Johnson was born on January 28, 1983, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Lonnie Johnson and Elise Ramsey. He has one brother. When he was 17 years old, his father died of cancer. In December 2011, Carldell said that, "My whole life, I’ve been trying to grind it out and work hard to get where I need to be. My father died from cancer, and I grew up in a tough neighborhood in (eastern) New Orleans, where guys would get bored and find time to get into other things, like stealing cars and walking around looking for fights. But Coach Tillman would always pick me up and have us going to practice, whether it was basketball season or not." He attended John F. Kennedy High School in New Orleans and transferred to Marion Abramson High School for his senior year. At Abramson he played basketball under head coach Robert Tillman. Tillman was also Johnson\'s coach in AAU basketball. After high school, he w…