Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade spent his entire Heat tenure as Udonis Haslem’s teammate, and Haslem consistently had the guard’s back. Haslem didn’t hesitate to go to bat for his former teammate whether he was backing up Wade’s trash talk or keeping the star out of harm’s way.

Fast forward to the current day, and Wade sees a similar relationship in the modern NBA between Indiana Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton and free agent forward James Johnson. Wade said that Johnson protects Haliburton just like how Haslem protected him back in the day.

“They show how J.J. waits for Tyrese Haliburton after every interview and how he’s been doing it since he’s been there,” Wade said. “So, it’s like he’s security with everybody — sit there and wait. That’s so — that means so much for a young guy who’s trying to become a leader. To have a OG like that — J.J. spent time in Miami. J.J. learned a lot behind U.D. and been in Miami in that culture.”

At 38 years old, Johnson is one of the older players in the league, and he wasn’t a majorly impactful player on the court for Indiana at all last season. He played in just 17 games in the regular season and playoffs combined, but he made a major impact from the sidelines and in the locker room.

Johnson and Haliburton’s Pacers seemingly couldn’t have possibly gotten closer to winning a title last year without capturing the ultimate prize. Indiana made a surprise run to the 2025 NBA Finals and gave the Oklahoma City Thunder all they could handle in the championship series, as the Thunder needed seven games to come out on top.

Plus, Haliburton tragically went down with an Achilles injury in the deciding Game 7, and who knows how that all-important game would have panned out if he hadn’t gotten hurt. Haliburton looked locked in to start the game, as he buried three 3-pointers in the opening minutes.

Unfortunately, on top of the fact that Haliburton was sidelined for the overwhelming majority of Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, he has already been ruled out for the entirety of the 2025-26 campaign. As a result, the Pacers look a lot worse on paper and might not have the talent to make a similarly deep playoff run in 2026.

Even if a title might not be in the cards for the Pacers in 2026, folks should still expect the team to be very competitive in the Eastern Conference, particularly if it brings back a locker room leader of Haslem’s ilk in Johnson.