Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Heat captains
James Johnson, Dragic join Haslem.
MIAMI — Leadership comes through experience. It is why Udonis Haslem, now in his 15th season with the franchise, has been a Miami Heat captain since 2007-08.
Leadership comes from success. It is why Goran Dragic was added as a captain this season, after willing underdog Slovenia last month to the 2017 EuroBasket championship.
And leadership comes with respect, which is why the Heat now have tri-captains, with James Johnson having won over the locker room in his first season with the franchise.
For coach Erik Spoelstra, returning to the tri-captain system the team utilized in 2015-16 with Haslem, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh was the only math that made sense for his council of leadership this season.
“U.D. will be a lifetime captain for however long he plays, and even well beyond that he’ll be the forever captain,” Spoelstra said of the decisions made public just before Saturday’s home-opening 112-108 victory over the Indiana Pacers at AmericanAirlines Arena, as the Heat now turn their attention to Monday’s game against the visiting Atlanta Hawks. “We all really just felt that it was time to add more captains and everybody was looking to Goran because he’s ready for that next step of leadership. And the guys, when you announce it and everybody is shaking their heads, you just know its the right move.”
And then there is Johnson, the passionate power forward who reinvented his body last season and was rewarded with a four-year, $60 million contract in the offseason for the way he helped resurrect the Heat over the second half of last season.
“J.J. was one of the most special things that I’ve been a part of in my coaching career,” Spoelstra said. “It was probably, to people on the outside, maybe surprising. Or you didn’t predict this would happen a year ago when we signed him.
“But when we actually named him captain, it was the no-brainer of nobrainers. You talk to any single player or staff member in that locker room, it was unanimous that he had to be a captain. He has that type of voice, purity, intention and just natural leadership qualities to take on that role. So it was really cool to see him grow into that.”
The captain role in the NBA is largely ceremonial. In fact, it was Haslem, alone, who met with the referees during Saturday’s pregame session. This also is a franchise that went without a captain in 2005-06 and ’06-07, never cast LeBron James with the designation, and did not utilize a tri-captain approach between 2001-02 and 2015-16, with Haslem the sole captain last season.
But to Johnson and Dragic it proved deeply meaningful, the first time in their NBA careers they have been so designated.
“It means a lot, because you’re working hard to get respect from players and coaching staff and that’s something huge,” Dragic said, now in his fourth season with the franchise. “We have one of the best captains in the NBA in U.D. and it’s a privilege to learn from him and try to be a role model for young players and kids. I was a captain on the national team, but that’s something totally different.”
Johnson was just as emotional when he learned of his designation as Spoelstra was in discussing it.
“It means the world to me that these guys voted for me to lead them, for them to follow me. I have great respect for them,” Johnson said of the process that involved the players and coaching staff. “Being the captain on this team doesn’t mean that I’m always saying what to do and everything I say is right. I also follow their lead, too. And I think that plays a big part in it.
“It’s something you dream about as a kid. Something you dream about in high school when you first get that captain in high school, you might get a captain in college. It’s something you live for and dream for.”
Having served in such a role in high school and at Wake Forest, he embraced the role and also put it into perspective.
“It’s a great responsibility and it’s a big responsibility. We all put in work. Everybody goes hard for the Miami Heat and our culture. It’s just me just being out there and being able to voice my opinion,” he said of working in concert with the coaching staff. “It kind of trickled down for the guys to listen.
“I don’t know what to think. I’m ecstatic. But, like I said, I still don’t think there’s a captain on this team. I feel like everybody voices their opinion.”