2 players in 2025 NBA Finals have links to Heat

NBA Finals Heat — (Mandatory Credit: Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

The 2025 NBA Finals are set!

Just like we all predicted, the Indiana Pacers made it out of the East, while the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder clinched a berth from the West!

Both teams were the two best teams from January on and showed that was the case, becoming the first pair of teams since the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers to make the NBA Finals after losing four or fewer games over the first three series.

Speaking of the Heat: Well, they are currently far from title contention. However, they will have former ties to the Finals, with two players on the Pacers–James Johnson and Thomas Bryant–previously playing for the Heat as recently as this year.

Indiana Pacers have two players with former ties to the Miami Heat:

Johnson, 37, has played just 39 career games (246 minutes) with the Pacers over the last three seasons. Over that span, he’s totaled 67 points, 40 rebounds, 27 assists, 12 steals and nine blocks, knocking down 29 of his 70 shot attempts (41.4 percent) with three 3s on 20 attempts (15.0 percent).

The 16-year journeyman has played for 10 different organizations, including three-and-a-half seasons with the Heat (2016-20), playing more games with the Heat than any other team.

You argue he played the best basketball of his life donning Miami’s red-and-black, too. In 222 career games, he averaged 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists on 47.6 percent shooting, 33.1 percent from 3-point range and 70.1 percent from the free-throw line. The 6-foot-7 finished top-5 in Sixth Man of the Year voting in 2016-17, averaging 12.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.6 dimes on 56.4 percent true shooting.

For those Heat teams that were stuck in the mud after the Big 3 and before Jimmy Butler, Johnson was a perfect ancillary glue guy who thrived in Miami’s motion-laden offense in the thick of his prime.

James Johnson was eventually shipped to Memphis for Andre Iguodala, Solomon Hill and Jae Crowder ahead of the 2020 trade deadline, which proved to be a home run for the Heat.

Thomas Bryant, Indiana’s unsung hero in Game 6, didn’t quite have the same success with the Heat in just one-and-a-half seasons. He was traded to Indiana in December for a 2031 second-round pick swap that was ultimately dealt in the Jimmy Butler five-team blockbuster.

Bryant played in just 48 games with Miami–including just 10 this year–averaging 5.4 points and 3.6 rebounds. He was out of the rotation for most of his time with the Heat, with Kevin Love getting the majority of backup big reps this year and rookie Kel’el Ware this year.

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Fortunately, Bryant saw a bigger role with Indiana, averaging 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per game. As a result of 8th-year center Tony Bradley, who played just 14 games for Indiana this year, missing Saturday’s Game 6 with a hip injury, the 6-foot-10 big thrived. In 13 minutes, he tallied 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc with three rebounds and a block.

While they may not be with the Heat anymore, it’s objectively cool to see these two players be a part of a team that gets a crack at it–especially Johnson, making his first NBA Finals appearance in the twilight of his career (Bryant won with Nuggets in 2023).