skeptik
Member
- Feb 7, 2003
- 24,413
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I like the Heat because I find the concept of their coming together. I liked the fact that James, Wade, and Bosh talked about playing together years ago and actually made it happen. The Decision was stupid, and I don't believe it wasn't largely LeBron's idea or that he was hesitant to do it, although I would imagine that he thinks it's stupid now. The introductory celebration was stupid as well, but that was PR stunt by the organization for the fans, and it's not exactly a unique event either. It was just more publicized because of the scenario. Do these two things make the guys look bad? Of course it does, but they're still bad reasons to dislike an entire team or the way that they play. Erik Spoelstra is an excellent young coach that will only get better, and Pat Riley assembled a very impressive lineup behind the 3 main players given their small budget. Typically I detest free agency building, but I believe basketball is a different beast from football for a number of reasons that make the former more suitable for free agency building over building through the draft. To start, football rosters have a hell of a lot more players. More importantly though, basketball is a far more individual sport than football is; therefore, individual players are more important in a basketball game than in football. Kevin Durant doesn't need an offensive line to hit a 3 over a defender, for example. So I don't really criticize free agency building in the NBA, and found the Miami Heat experiment of this past season to be very interesting. Players like Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony and Mike Miller are ardent defenders and (with the exception of Anthony) dominant players on the board for their size. The Heat have been successful because of a lot of hard work and unselfish play on the floor with, at times, peerless defense picking up average offense. They never became the NBA Jam scoring fest that many assumed that they would be initially, and instead won with beating the other team down when the ball is not in their hands. Their transition offense was basically the best in the league and their transition defense was more than admirable. tl;dr there are a myriad of reasons for a true sports fan to pull for the Heat. I don't look to athletes for role models and people who do are stupid. I was disappointed that they lost, but I'm happy for Dirk and Kidd.
