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How Garrett Johnson returned to basketball

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The morning of his collegiate debut, six months after his ninth round of chemotherapy, Garrett Johnson stayed quiet.

He didn't listen to music. He wasn't chatty with his teammates. He simply went about his day, reflecting on the past two years of his life and his recovery from a desmoid tumor -- "noncancerous growths that occur in the connective tissue," per the Mayo Clinic website -- in his hip that nearly ended his basketball career.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I was nervous," said Johnson, who scored 21 points (5-for-7 from the 3-point line) for George Washington in its 89-44 win over Stonehill on Nov.