After a winding college career, North Philly’s Diamond Johnson has arrived as a WNBA draft prospect

Diamond Johnson will be the first to tell you that her path through college basketball wasn’t straight.

But it was always about where the North Philadelphia native wanted to end up, and now she’s there with a real chance of hearing her name called in Monday’s WNBA draft (7:30 p.m., ESPN).

“It’s something that I’ve been working towards my whole life,” she said. “I’m just super excited, because you envision stuff and sometimes it doesn’t work out or it don’t [pan out] the way that you plan it. But everything that’s happening right now is exactly what I planned, and what I worked for.”

Johnson started high school in Hampton, Va., where she moved to at age 11. She then returned to Philadelphia to transfer to Neumann Goretti, where she became a two-time state player of the year and a five-star prospect — though she famously wasn’t picked for her senior year’s McDonald’s All American game.

She was recruited to Rutgers by legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer, then transferred to North Carolina State after her freshman season. Johnson spent two years with the Wolfpack, then finished her college career at Norfolk State.

Transferring from an ACC school to one of the historically Black colleges and universities of the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference might seem unconventional from afar. It proved a great success, though, as Johnson led the Spartans to back-to-back regular-season and conference tournament sweeps.

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“It was an obstacle course, but I found my home,” Johnson said. “I feel I did it my own way, and I’m just super proud that I chose to go to an HBCU — one of the best decisions that I made in my life. … It wasn’t a straight line drive and that’s what kind of makes it so special.”

That sense of fulfillment became ever clearer as she spoke.

“If you trust yourself, you trust the work that you’re going to put in, you have people supporting you around you, coaches, family members, fans, supporters,” Johnson said. “No matter what level, no matter what conference, no matter what school, you can do it anywhere. You trust yourself. and you have people around you that’s going to allow you to be yourself, and allow you to make mistakes and learn from them.”

She added quietly, but emphatically: “And don’t let the game take the fun away from you.”

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Johnson’s last Norfolk State game was fittingly close to home. The Spartans were a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament playing at No. 4 Maryland, which meant lots of fans and family could attend.

The day ended in defeat, but it wouldn’t be her last college game. She was invited to the College All-Star Game at the Final Four in Tampa, Fla., and her 21 points for the winning side earned her MVP honors.

“Glad they reached out, glad they saw the stuff that I’ve been doing all season for me to get invited,” Johnson said. “It was an opportunity that I could not pass up — I mean, who would pass that up? But I was just extremely grateful and blessed, and those are connections that I have forever, not just on the court but even off the court.”

Along with the game, the weekend included a scouting combine for WNBA teams. Johnson got to work there with a well-known trainer in men’s basketball circles, Joe Abunassar. He was impressed by what he saw.

“She’s a baller — when the lights come on, she plays well,” he said. “But she was extremely hardworking, pleasant, and we really enjoyed spending time with her and getting to know her and everyone there. And of course, enjoyed watching her play, because she’s very talented.”

Abunassar has worked with a lot of Philly-born men’s players in his career, including Cuttino Mobley, Dion Waiters, and Kyle Lowry. So it was an obvious question to ask if Johnson carries her hometown’s traits.

“She did not disappoint in the Philly grit, no doubt about it,” Abunassar said, noting that he has worked with Lowry for 19 years and has been to Philly many times. “She definitely made those guys proud to represent Philly on the women’s side.”

Johnson thanked Abunassar for the invitation, and said she heard good things from many scouts who talked with her.

“People were just, very supportive and very encouraging, and maybe it did open a lot of people’s eyes if they hadn’t seen me,” she said, “or if they did see me and they was, you know, skeptical of if I could play at the next level or play with the top schools. If I already didn’t do it in the Big Ten or the ACC, I mean, that was just another opportunity.”

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So will Johnson get drafted? She won’t be at the event, preferring to stay at home for a party with her family. But she knows that if it happens, she’ll be just the eighth pick from a HBCU in the league’s 29-year history.

There’s been some chatter among scouts that it’s possible in the later rounds, and ESPN college basketball and WNBA analyst Andraya Carter agrees.

“She can certainly score,” Carter said. “I think her playmaking ability, her scoring ability definitely makes her an intriguing prospect for some WNBA teams.”