Kris was the leader for two California State Championship teams at Crenshaw High School under 2022 SCBBHOFer Willie West Jr., and was the Los Angeles City MVP 20 years after his father Marques won the honor. He averaged 22 points and 14 rebounds a game as a junior, and 23 points and 10 rebounds per game as a senior forward for the LA City and State title teams. He started his HS basketball career at Montclair Prep before transferring. The 6-5 Johnson went to UCLA, and was part of the 1995 NCAA Championship Team (first father-son to ever win NCAA titles in the sport), and then started the next three years for the Bruins on NCAA tournament teams that went to the Elite 8 and Sweet 16.

He led the team in scoring as a senior, averaging over 18 points per game. He finished UCLA in the top 25 all-time in scoring, and on the Bruin record book leader lists in multiple categories. After finishing college, Johnson played eight years professionally in multiple countries, including winning the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup in 2002, and being named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). He later worked as a basketball analyst for Fox Sports before starting his own sports website, JerseyChaser.com. He becomes the first father-son in the SCBBHOF as his father Marques was a 2020 honoree and deferred to 2023 to go in together.