Ernie Johnson Jr. is one of the most trusted voices in American sports broadcasting. As the host of Inside the NBA on TNT, he is the man who sits between Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley and somehow keeps the show together. He has been the voice of baseball, basketball, and golf for decades. Calm. Steady. The man who always knows what to say.
But in 2003, when he noticed a lump growing near his left ear, Ernie Johnson did not know what to say to himself. So he said nothing. He ignored it.
The Fear
Fear kept him silent. The same fear that keeps millions of people from going to the doctor — the quiet, corrosive terror that says: if I do not look at it, maybe it is not real. If I do not name it, maybe it will go away.
Ernie admitted later that fear and denial worked together to keep him from seeking help. He knew the lump was there. He watched it grow. And he did nothing, because knowing for certain felt worse than not knowing at all.
This is what fear does. It does not just frighten you — it paralyses you. It takes away your ability to act. It makes silence feel safer than truth.
The Diagnosis
When Ernie finally went to the doctor, the news was what he had feared: non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Cancer. The word he had been running from had caught up with him.
But here is where the story changes direction. Because the moment the diagnosis was spoken out loud — the moment the fear was named — it began to lose its power.
The Encounter
Ernie Johnson did not face cancer alone. He had three things that fear could not compete with: faith, friends, and family.
His faith was not the performative kind that looks good on camera. It was the kind that had been built over years of quiet trust — the kind that says God is good even when the news is not. The kind that chooses hope not because the odds are favourable, but because the God who holds the odds is trustworthy.
His friends — especially Charles Barkley, who he credits with extraordinary support during the darkest days — rallied around him. And his family held the line. Together, they created a wall of love around Ernie Johnson that fear could not penetrate.
He described his approach simply: "I chose to be optimistic. I chose faith over fear."
The Healing
The lymphoma was not aggressive, and after a period of watchful waiting, Ernie began chemotherapy with Rituxan in 2006. The treatment worked. He received the call that he was done with chemo while sitting at his office desk, preparing for the first show of the new season.
He went back on the air. He went back to his family. He went back to a life that had been interrupted by cancer but not defined by it.
What This Means for You
If you have been ignoring something — a lump, a symptom, a pain that will not go away — because you are afraid of what the doctor might say, Ernie Johnson understands. He was you. He let fear keep him from facing the truth.
But fear is a worse companion than cancer. At least cancer can be treated. Fear just grows in the dark.
Face it. Get checked. Name the thing you are afraid of. Because the moment you stop running from it, something extraordinary happens — faith has room to enter. And faith, unlike fear, does not paralyse you. It gives you power, love, and a clear mind.
Ernie Johnson chose faith over fear. That choice did not make the cancer disappear overnight. But it made the journey bearable, the treatment manageable, and the outcome hopeful. The same choice is available to you.
