The Louisiana State University Lady Tigers star Flau’jae Johnson faced a major downside of commercialism and popularity when fans took advantage of her autograph. The incident exposed the conning in the market. Hearing the same incident, the experienced New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart came forward to advise Johnson giving her titbits of wisdom.

Johnson on her podcast gave a glimpse into the dark side of popularity. She remembered an incident after her NCAA 2023 Championship title win that showed her hidden side of the opportunistic world. “I remember last year like after we won the championship, it started getting hectic and people started showing up to the airport and having us sign things. And we realized we were signing stuff and they was selling on the internet for like $10,000, I was like oh no huh I ain’t signing nothing else,” Johnson said, via the Best of Both Worlds with Flau’jae.

Johnson recollected the moment when she had won the national championship by defeating the Iowa Hawkeyes in the NCAA 2023 season. Post that, LSU received a lot of limelight and the players started getting star treatment. It was then that someone might have got Johnson to sign with the blue pen and sold the product to other fans.

“If they want you to sign something in a blue pen that means they’re selling,” Stewart responded. To which Johnson remarked “I done learned some, I done learned some from the goat cuz them pens do be blue. It’s like they had like, they, they had like the national championship like floor or whatever and like we was signing,” 

An experienced Stewart who was the NCAA Champion in all her four years with the University of Connecticut Huskies from 2012-2016 advised Johnson never ever to sign any autograph in blue. It is said that autographs in blue can be easily sold and replicated or scanned over other items. Hence, famous people should avoid using blue pens while giving signatures since it can encourage a black market for their items.

Patrick Beverly would agree with Breanna Stewart’s advice for Flau’jae Johnson

During an episode of ‘The Pat Bev Podcast with Rone’ in 2022, the Milwaukee Bucks star revealed that he too avoids signing with the blue pen. Beverly had then stated the real reason behind it which also came as a learning for many balling stars.

“I was taught, maybe after my third year that you’re not supposed to use a blue pen because they can use that signature and slap it on another jersey and sell that, but you can’t do that with a black pen or grey pen,” Beverly stated, as per Yahoo Sports.

Perhaps, Johnson would keep in mind the learnings from Stewart and hopefully, other balling stars too will notice this and never sign with a blue pen.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.