'He had the answer for everything': The impact of James Johnson's leadership and how his lessons carry on
Every team needs a vet, especially an inexperienced group like the Pacers last season during a rebuild. Now, who steps forward this year?
For several years, the Pacers lacked the guy.
The leader.
The wise one.
The experienced vet.
The Pacers front office studied teams around the league. They studied championship cultures, like in Miami. They also studied rebuilds, such as in Cleveland and Memphis.
And president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard set out to change course. Because they needed the guy, a positive yet brutally honest teammate to help guide the youth and show them how it’s done.
They entered last season with a roster that averaged out to be 25.08 years old, which ranked 10th youngest in the NBA. Go off experience, it is was less. Just 3.18 seasons, ranking sixth, according to league data.
So when it was time for training camp, the front office made sure they had a voice who was respected and could speak from experience. That guy was James Johnson.
Right away, I go back to our first conversation, which was about one year ago. It was at the Pacers’ annual golf outing and the subject was his newfound passion for golf.
“I’m never going to play something or do anything if it’s not about the competitiveness,” he said.
What’s the buzzword right now at Pacers camp 2023? Competitiveness.
And JJ helped instill that all last season. He was part of the change in DNA, along with Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard. Guys who fight like hell and hated to lose. Despise it, actually.
Johnson provided leadership that this team lacked for several years, going back to 2019 after the departure of Glue Guy Thad Young. And Al Jefferson and David West before him.
Udonis Haslem in Miami had been the model for franchises. (He retired this offseason.) Good enough to still play when called upon, but understanding of his role and united in the quest to lift an entire locker room. And more than anything, demand accountability. (Another camp buzzword!)
“It’s one of the greatest locker rooms I’ve ever seen,” Johnson said of the Pacers’ last season, “other than the one that Udonis Haslem had in Miami.”
Haslem — aka UD — was one of Johnson’s vets. “The ultimate OG,” he said. So, too, was current Pacers assistant coach for player development Jannero Pargo, the team’s summer league head coach in July.
“When it got to 23-18,” head coach Rick Carlisle said last season of their strong start, “the veteran presence that James Johnson had given us on a day-to-day basis up to that point had been a pretty significant factor in us achieving what we had.
“He’s contributed so much to our situation just in terms of setting examples, mentoring, being very positive, being very truthful. He has a really strong reputation in this league as a great competitor, obviously [he’s] a very tough guy. He’s been a difference maker…”
That was year two of the Pacers’ rebuild and was long overdue. The value received from Johnson’s one-year deal cannot be overstated.
“He was that guy in the locker room that everybody could go to if they had a problem or if they needed advice on anything,” said Jalen Smith. “I went to JJ for everything because I respect JJ. I know everything that I went through, he went through so I knew that he had the answer for everything.”
So important that after completing a trade at the deadline, and having to waive him in the process, the team brought him back (bonus money!) to finish out the season.
But first, he sat courtside at their next home game after being waived — in Haliburton’s family seats — because he wanted to be there for his guys.
“It’s overwhelming for real,” Johnson said of all the love he received during the game. “Overwhelming. These guys know what they mean to me. Even throughout this whole process, I was getting texts throughout the day to make sure my family and me was OK.”
Johnson wasn’t after their minutes. He came in with a serve mentality, to provide whatever he felt was needed.
“Cheer for somebody else’s success,” he told them, “then it’s contagious.”
He stressed how important it was for each guy to know their role, for there to be no cliques on the team so if a few guys went to dinner on the road, they all would.
Together.
Every team needs example setters, truth tellers and no bullshit. While all that, Johnson had a special gift of being able to connect with each player (much like T.J. McConnell).
“It matters how the words fall on them,” he said. “Some guys like to be yelled at, that turns them up. Some guys like one arm around their shoulder and talked to just one-on-one. And some guys don’t like to be talked to for a little bit. You got to know your personnel.”
No one benefitted more than the face of the team, Tyrese Haliburton.
“People understand their roles, they understand that we have a franchise,” Johnson continued. “Now we’re building around him (Haliburton). It’s care-free and everybody respects each other’s work ethic more than they probably respect them as a person. So it’s hard to tell someone, ‘No, don’t take that shot. We don’t need it right now’ when you understand that he works on that shot.
“I can’t say enough about Tyrese. Tremendous growth on knowing that it’s his team, knowing how to run his team, when to speak up and when not to speak up.”
Last season, I asked Haliburton where Johnson had been most impactful. He sighed, unsure where to begin.
“He’s been really awesome,” he said. “From the minute he got here, our first-ever conversation he’s like, ‘Man, I got your back. Don’t worry about anything.’ Playing against James Johnson, I knew you don’t mess with that guy. When he came here and said that to me, I was like, ‘All right, I’m good then. I’m not worried about nobody. I got him with me.’
“He’s been great for a lot of different guys. He’s the ultimate hype man for everybody in that locker room, coaches included. He just wants to see everybody succeed. Obviously, he’s played a lot of years in this league and he’s been around a lot of great players.
“He’s been awesome for me because I think he challenges me. He’s seen it up close; he was D-Rose (Derrick Rose) in this first couple years when he was going to be MVP, he was with KD, with Kyrie (Irving), James (Harden) and all those guys. He’s been around great players and he challenges me to be one of those. It means a lot because it’s one thing for a GM to say something, a coach to say something. It’s a whole other thing for your teammate to have a lot of trust in you. He’s been like a big brother to me.”
There’s a lot there, but the resounding sentiment from his teammates was gratefulness to have Johnson in their lives and on the team. The big brother in the locker room, the voice in their ear when they needed lifted, and an authority when someone falls out of line.
“To have a good team, you got to have somebody like that to be the man that brings the energy and knows how to bring everybody together,” said third-year center Isaiah Jackson. “When we’re down, he’s the main one at halftime like, ‘Yo, we need to get more offensive rebounds.’ He doesn’t even wait for the coaches, he says it to us and figures it out.”
Added longtime Pacers TV analyst Quinn Buckner on a broadcast last season. “When we go to shootaround and practice, he’s always the most lively.”
Johnson, 36, wasn’t the only one. He had help, like ‘hometown hero’ George Hill, who was acquired as part of a trade-deadline deal.
“He holds me accountable every day,” Haliburton said of Hill. “And then when I come out of the game, he’s usually the one who talks to me, more than the staff. At practice, he’s the one who gets on me. So it’s always good to have good vets around you.”
Johnson and Hill were not brought back and they remain free agents.
It’s unclear if Johnson still wants to play or if he’s ready to move into the next chapter in his life. Meanwhile, Hill would still like to play at least one more year and he continues to train with that in mind, per league sources. Ultimately, if he had it his way, he’d then like to return to the Pacers and create a new role, one similar to another longtime Heat player — Dwyane Wade, now a part-owner of the Utah Jazz.
So What Now?
“At some point, as our young guys take ownership of the team, that involves being more vocal,” GM Chad Buchanan said before camp. “That’s a lot to ask a young player, but I think some of our young players are growing into that role.
“We have veterans that can fill that void, but we also want to see some of our younger guys, specifically Tyrese is getting ready to take on more of that vocal leadership. His experience with USA Basketball has given him a boost of confidence too.
“We’re going to miss James’ presence. Just his sheer presence brought a little personality to the locker room.”
Myles Turner is entering his ninth season. McConnell has experienced a lot (though it’s possible he gets traded) and already, several newcomers have cited Buddy Hield. The team signed Bruce Brown in free agency and you cannot forget about Daniel Theis, who just won gold with Germany and experienced the NBA Finals with Boston.
“I try not to be a rah-rah guy and just lead by example,” McConnell said. “The thing that I try to do is, no matter who is out or who is playing, we have to give the same energy every single night. That’s kind of how I’ve played my entire career and that next-man-up mentality.
“My advice to the young guys is you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get to step out on the floor. There’s young guys in this league that don’t see the floor until their third or fourth year so these minutes are very valuable.”
It also didn’t take long for Brown’s message to carry weight because of his championship experience with the Nuggets last season. He’s been where every player wants to be. The team paid a championship tax to get him, $22 million for this season.
One of the most interesting things said on media day was the first thing Turner said.
“I’m finally atop the seniority list so I can do whatever the hell I want, whenever I want to do it,” he said, laughing. “That’s dope. In all seriousness, I’m looking forward to another role on this team. I’ve always talked about being a leader, but now it’s the leader. We got a younger group of guys coming in here, I got a refreshed mindset and I’m just very excited to get things rolling. It’s been a long offseason.”
Turner has experienced a lot in the NBA despite only being 27 years old. But he wants to get back to the playoffs, back to what was the standard for this organization.
“This entire preseason we’re obviously going to be trying some new things out, trying different lineups out, trying different schematics out,” he said, setting the tone. “But more than anything, once we get between them lines, we all know we’re going at each other. I think one thing that was established and what’s understood in our experience in Nashville is we’re all friends off the floor. But once we get on the floor, we’ve got to push each other. Real friends help each other get to that next spot and holding each other accountable is going to be a big thing this year. I think I’ve personally really harped on.
“I feel like at times last year, if I see something I would bite my tongue. But I’m not at liberty to do that anymore. Accountability is going to be huge for this team this year.”
The players set the tone for the season during their mini-camp in Nashville. Appropriately, there were dinners and team bonding at night after they got their work done earlier in the day at Vanderbilt University.
Johnson valued regular team dinners and he would be proud that even without him in the locker room this season, his message will live on. (Especially with 11 of 15 players back from last season.)
“It has to be me,” Turner reiterated. “I spent a year being groomed by those guys. I’m happy to see that a lot of stuff that I’ve learned from them I can apply to this group.”
Like?
“Confidence,” he said. “Self-confidence that I’ve never really experienced in the past.”
Not until James Johnson.
This is the most excited I’ve been about an upcoming season in a long time. There’s a lot to like about this team and it will be fun to watch as the players develop.
As a basketball fan I have a sense the the “basketball universe” won’t permit Indiana to have too much success. If the Pacers are good then IU will be down or vice versa. 🥴 With Purdue being so strong and IU retooling and the Pacers developing could my bad mojo be put to rest? I hope so.
And yes, I want both IU and Purdue to be competitive.
Why would the Pacers not want to hire James Johnson as an Asst Coach to continue to support the players? Cheaper than what they paid him last year and it’s not like he will get a roster spot somewhere else?