{"id":227686,"date":"2025-10-15T23:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227686\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T23:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:50:07","slug":"flaujae-johnson-is-getting-comfortable-with-uncomfortable-in-her-final-season-at-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227686\/","title":{"rendered":"Flau\u2019Jae Johnson is getting comfortable with uncomfortable in her final season at LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 Flau\u2019Jae Johnson doesn\u2019t like to be uncomfortable. She describes herself as \u201ccontrolling.\u201d She likes to know what\u2019s coming. But in her final year<\/a> at LSU, discomfort is all but guaranteed for the multi-talented rapper and basketball player.<\/p>\n

Coach Kim Mulkey knows what she\u2019s asking of Johnson doesn\u2019t necessarily come naturally for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership,\u201d Mulkey said Wednesday at SEC basketball media days<\/a>. \u201cFlau\u2019Jae, she leads by what she does with her music. I think she\u2019s always been reluctant to be a leader of teammates because she wants them to like her. She never felt comfortable doing it because she\u2019s always had that great older player in the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson hasn\u2019t needed to be a vocal leader yet. She\u2019s shared locker rooms with Angel Reese<\/a> and Aneesah Morrow \u2013 outspoken leaders who have ascended to the pros. She\u2019s been able to let others have the difficult conversations while she focuses on her game and music<\/a>, all while being authentic and likable.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll be the first to admit she\u2019s not comfortable with the concept of people not liking her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love everybody and want them to love me back,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie, I didn\u2019t want that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tigers welcome eight new players, three of which are transfers. Johnson is one of four seniors on the team. Amiya Joyner is new this year, transferring from East Carolina. Izzy Besselman walked on during her freshman year, and Kailyn Gilbert transferred from Arizona in 2023. As the longest-tenured starter on LSU\u2019s basketball team and an inevitable WNBA<\/a> draft pick, the natural progression suggests it\u2019s Johnson\u2019s turn to lead.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, it didn\u2019t take her long to come around. Johnson realized, if not her, then who?<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a senior, there are so many new faces,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI realized if I don\u2019t do it, we will be a leaderless team, and you can\u2019t win like that. I\u2019ve already had some uncomfortable conversations and asked players what I need to do to become a better leader for them. I got some answers I didn\u2019t really want, so I have been working on myself every day and trying to stay accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s leaning into the challenge, even when it feels uneasy. And her coach has no doubt it\u2019s time to take on that responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are that older player. You\u2019re the senior. You\u2019ve been here. You know the ropes. So go lead your basketball team,\u201d Mulkey said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIRMINGHAM, Ala. \u2014 Flau\u2019Jae Johnson doesn\u2019t like to be uncomfortable. She describes herself as \u201ccontrolling.\u201d She likes to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-227686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}