On February 22, 2007, at the Austin Convention Center, Johnson had a heart attack and collapsed at the end of the Toros' practice. He could not be revived and was later pronounced dead. Johnson is survived by his wife, Donna, sons Dwayne and Daniel, and a daughter, Denise.
Dennis Johnson, widely regarded as one of the great clutch players in NBA history, averaged 14.1 points per game in the regular season during his 14-year NBA career but in 37 games in the NBA Finals he averaged 18.3 points per game.
Among the 65 players in NBA history who played at least 800 games in the regular season and 15 games in the Finals, only two had a larger increase in their Finals ppg average over their regular-season mark than Johnson's 4.2: Hakeem Olajuwon, who was plus 5.7 (21.8 to 27.5), and James Worthy, who was plus 4.6 (17.6 to 22.2).