SAN ANTONIO — Deep in the bowels of an NBA arena, the San Antonio Spurs have gathered around a boom box with a bubbling energy. Their emotional leader has his hands in the air, a clear sign that everything is going to be OK.

“It’s a party in the U.S.A.!” Spurs wing Keldon Johnson screams at the top of his lungs as his teammates throw up their hands in unison.

Then the Spurs run out to the floor, win another game, then run back to the locker room in jubilation. The team is full of stars, from Victor Wembanyama to De’Aaron Fox to rookie guard Dylan Harper. But nobody has a bigger presence in the locker room than Johnson. It’s easy to know when he’s there. Just listen for Mariah Carey or Vanessa Carlton.

“You know I’d walk a thousand miles if I could just see you tonight,” you can hear Johnson belting from the showers.

Johnson doesn’t listen to pop anthems all the time. He listens to plenty of rap and country, just like his teammates. But the man who routinely exudes child-like wonder taps into a deeper sense of self when he hears the opening piano riff from Carlton’s early-2000s banger, “A Thousand Miles.” He becomes carefree when Miley Cyrus yells, “Yeah.”

“As soon as you put it on, I know every lyric,” Johnson told The Athletic. “I feel like you go back to your childhood.”

DJ Keldon has a rotating playlist, but the mainstays are “Party in the U.S.A,” “A Thousand Miles” and “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit. There’s no place he’d rather be than San Antonio, so it has to stay in the queue.

“I thought he was messing around, trolling and being funny,” rookie wing Carter Bryant said. “But it turned into a thing. Every game, home and away, don’t matter.”

Johnson delights in playing the role of lovable buffoon in the locker room, but his goofiness has purpose. His teammates often roll their eyes when talking about his antics with a brotherly reverence. Johnson makes it impossible for the locker room to be overly tense on down nights, which have become increasingly rare this season as the Spurs sit at second in the Western Conference.

“He’s always joking around, and he’s never really too, too serious,” teammate Devin Vassell said. “He’s always trying to have a light mood.”

His energy is one of the biggest reasons why this franchise has gone from losing to winning so quickly. Their talent is deep and versatile. But their success has been a product of the energy they bring every night. Johnson and his giant speaker have been at the center of that.

“It’s ultimately team bonding. We’re all singing, and when we get ready for the game, we’re all hyped out,” Johnson said. “It don’t matter how it looks or how people feel about it. It’s what gets us going.”