ESPN commentator says ‘we don’t talk enough about’ HBCU basketball star Diamond Johnson

The Norfolk State girls’s basketball crew as soon as once more cemented themselves because the dominant presence within the MEAC after clinching a share of the convention common season title on Monday evening for the fourth straight season.

The Spartans are 26-4 total and 12-0 within the MEAC this season and are ranked No. 5 in the newest Faculty Insider Mid-Main High 25 Ballot.

It’s not misplaced on those that’ve noticed the crew over the previous few seasons that the catalyst for this run of success is level guard Diamond Johnson.

How good has she been?

Properly, the 5-foot-5 North Carolina State switch is the one lively Division I girls’s basketball participant with greater than 2,000 factors, 600 rebounds, 300 assists and 300 steals.

Johnson’s play has now drawn consideration past the HBCU panorama.

In an look on Good Recreation with Sarah Spain, Arielle Chambers, a commentator for Andscape and ESPN, talked about that Norfolk State and Johnson have been unheralded.

“I need to shine a lightweight on any individual that transferred from NC State and took it upon herself to go to an HBCU and that’s Diamond Johnson,” Chambers mentioned. “Let’s simply speak about Norfolk State normally. They’ve 26 straight house wins, and that results in D1 basketball. We don’t speak about that.”

ESPN and Andscape commentator @ariivory says we must be watching Norfolk State’s Diamond Johnson and paying extra consideration to HBCU hoops normally.

Take heed to the total interview: https://t.co/RvLMrOiMv8 pic.twitter.com/6dIWb2M1XA

— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) March 5, 2025

Chambers then praised Johnson for acting at a excessive degree at an HBCU, although her efforts have largely been neglected nationally within the consideration given to JuJu Watkins, Lauren Betts, Paige Bueckers, and Hannah Hidalgo.

“She’s so impactful for that Norfolk State crew, and simply with the ability to have a homecoming of types, proper?” mentioned Chambers. ‘Going to an HBCU, going the place you are feeling such as you’re appreciated, and producing the outcomes you have got. We don’t speak about Diamond Johnson sufficient, and that’s simply the panorama of girls’s basketball.”