Welcome back to the Indiana Pacers, James Johnson.
Johnson, who was the team’s locker room leader last season, has agreed to a deal with the Indiana Pacers according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
No surprise that it happens after an intense game and heated post-game scuffle with the Milwaukee Bucks where it feels like some of the home team’s actions would have gone a little differently with Johnson, who has a black belt and is a kickboxer, as a veteran enforcer there to back the young Pacers up. Not only after the game, but during it as well as the Bucks were reviewed for a Bobby Portis elbow to the face, a forearm shove from Giannis Antetokounmpo on Tyrese Haliburton, and multiple technical fouls called in the 4th quarter with Portis at the forefront.
The Pacers had an open roster spot after buying out Daniel Theis earlier this season so no one needed to be waived in order to make this signing. Johnson will likely play sparingly as the true value to the team will be the added toughness and veteran leadership to the locker room.
Pacers players talked about the importance of Johnson last season as a mentor but also about how just because he isn’t here doesn’t mean that the lessons he instilled in them would be gone either.
“We’re going to miss JJ for sure,” Jalen Smith said on media day. “More off the court … that presence he had in the locker room. He was like the big brother to everybody.”
Smith said that beyond basketball, he would go to Johnson for anything in life that he needed advice with.
Big brother is back and here to defend his teammates as these games continue to show a level of intensity atypical of early regular season games in the NBA.
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[…] game with the Bucks and the fracas over the game ball that followed that inspired the Pacers to sign James Johnson, they just didn’t have it tonight after a solid first quarter where they were up 37-30. The […]
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