Miami Heat guard Tyler Johnson doesn't care about loosing teeth
Tyler Johnson says he didn’t even feel his tooth get knocked out during the Miami Heat’s loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Tyler Johnson has a knack for getting to the rim, playing tough defense and generally surprising people with his athleticism… and for loosing teeth. It was this past summer that ESPN ran a story in its magazine with a featured image of a grinning, toothless Johnson.
He’s lost teeth in college and in the pros, and he lost another one against the Detroit Pistons last week.
It happened when he was guarding Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and took an inadvertent blow to the mouth.
“He just went up. Maybe I shouldn’t have let him get to the hole, I would have still had my tooth,” Johnson said after the game. “I think it was Caldwell-Pope who got me. He just got me when he finished, his follow through just hit me in the mouth.”
[…]
“I didn’t even feel it,” Johnson said of losing his false tooth in Detroit. “Obviously I felt that there was nothing there. But it didn’t hurt or nothing. I thought I swallowed my tooth, though, because I couldn’t find it.”
[…]
“It’s crazy, man. It’s crazy,” Johnson said. “I don’t know. I don’t think I was meant to have teeth.”
You have to appreciate the way Johnson competes and is able to blow off something like a tooth being knocked out. Dude played right on.
In the aforementioned ESPN story, Johnson talked about why he hadn’t gotten the last one fixed–one he lost in a summer league collision–after signing a $50 million deal (it’s not like he can’t afford it).
“I’m just letting it rock right now,” he explains with a wide, gap-toothed grin. “I got my girl. I’m engaged. I’m in no rush.”
As you can tell, Johnson doesn’t prioritize teeth or his looks very much. He’s got great perspective.
More from All U Can Heat
This article originally appeared on 
