Not The Last Heat Check

Although the intrigue is high in Major League Baseball, Wimbledon is at its outset and the UFC is entering its annual summer hype, it’s just so tough to let the NBA season go.

It’s difficult to muster the lockout talks in both the NBA and NFL without playoff basketball games taking precedence over it all. So let’s savor the 2010-11 NBA season one last time with something that could’ve been a running topic all year. Let’s cap it off with a Heat Check.

First, we’ll start with a regular season recap:

The Miami Heat started off the season 9-8, which led to a bump that probably would’ve gone unnoticed on any other team in the history of basketball, which led to the widespread doubts of Erik Spoelstra as the team’s head coach, which led to LeBron James and Spoelstra sitting down and working things out face to face, which led to the Heat winning 21 of its next 22 games which consisted of a convincing win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas day, which led to the praise of Spoelstra, which was followed by a four-game losing streak in January that consisted of a handful of failed crunch-time performances by LeBron James, which was followed by a five-game losing streak in March that consisted of an instance entitled “Crygate”, which led to Spoelstra being doubted again (this time for being so unnecessarily blunt towards the media. Frankly, his demeanor in both the presence of the media and his team seemed either forced or contrived all season), which was followed by a trademark victory over the Lakers in which Dwayne Wade sealed the game by using a screen by James, which led to the Heat losing only three games the rest of the season, which locked them in as the Eastern Conference’s 2-seed.

That whirlwind of events was so intriguing, compelling and fascinating all at the same time that it’s easy to forget how much really transpired in that six-month span. And while this was all going on, every road game for the Miami Heat was virtually a playoff atmosphere and every nationally televised game felt like a playoff telecast. Those games felt like they meant something more than they really did, all because of one basketball player’s journey, his decision, and the manner in which the Heat were conceived.

If you’re a fan of a team it’s one thing. But when the Heat banded, everybody started watching. They were immediately polarizing. They became the villains of the league. Sports fans of every sector started watching this team’s every move no differently than how a scientific experiment is observed. Before the season started, nobody knew how Dwayne Wade and LeBron James would coalesce. When the season began, it seemed as though they were trading roles when they saw fit, handing one the reins when the other was on the bench. Chris Bosh seemed to be the glue guy, keeping the team afloat whenever injuries surfaced.

When chemistry began to manifest and Miami’s floor spacing and ball movement actually became a thing of beauty, the fourth quarter offense was still putrid. It wasn’t until the team's second meeting versus the Lakers on March 10 when Wade and James worked together as a two-man solution, with Wade as the ball handler and James as the screener, that the Heat broke out of its crunch time swoon.

From that point on, the Miami Heat were comparable to a high-octane racecar. LeBron was the engine, Wade was the driver, and Bosh became the pit crew. When the playoffs came around and the Heat rolled through Philadelphia and then the Boston Celtics, that engine was running on high gear and the driver was completely in the zone. Dwayne Wade ‘quietly’ averaged 30 points, 5 assists and 7 rebounds in the Eastern Conference semifinals, but was somewhat overshadowed by LeBron’s three 30-plus point games and spectacular finish in the series clincher, which consisted of James scoring the Heat’s final 10 points in vehement fashion.

When that racecar lined up against the Chicago Bulls, then motored through the Bulls with James at the helm, it seemed as though the Heat were primed for a championship. The driver was no longer in the zone (19 points, 2 assists and 6 rebounds were Wade’s averages in that series), but the pit crew was just fine and the engine was running so well that Derrick Cope could’ve won the Daytona 500 behind it. (Although that really did happen. Somehow.)

Then the Finals happened, and all the Heat left us with were question marks.
What happened to LeBron in game 4? Was Wade hurt? Why did Bosh’s syndrome take over his body when James Harden so easily shook off the same sickness? Why did he make his best Pau Gasol impersonation by taking ‘soft’ to another level, and then exacerbate it by breaking down in tears after the game? Why was he the only Miami player to depict true sorrow after the loss? When will LeBron learn how to deal with the media and when did this happen? When will he stop tweeting his way into controversy? How can he be considered the best player in the NBA when he obviously can’t balance a team’s Heart and Hustle, has never even come close to tapping out his ambition and conveys no discernible intangibles (on or off the court) in the utmost magnified situations? Why is Wade, the poised driver, expediting media swirls with a cough and media retaliation? Why does Wade seem to get a free pass for saying things as LeBron follows him around like his little brother? Does anyone remember the “The world is better now that the Heat is losing” quote?

Well, the Heat lost and the world is the same. The basketball world is what’s better. And when Pat Riley spoke with the media yesterday, the 2011-12 Heat intrigue already started up. Riley said emphatically that he will not coach again, but he instantly displayed an aura that was believable in yesterday’s press conference, unlike anything Erik Spoelstra has portrayed with his disposition. Spoelstra did do a fine job while in the toughest coaching position in sports this season, and his coaching style is what made the pre-Big-3 Heat a playoff team with Wade, Udonis Haslem and a bunch of short-term contracts. However, making the jump from coaching a team in development to coaching a team in instantaneous title contention is a work in progress for him. He never completely figured it out, which rendered detrimental when LeBron James magically morphed from an unstoppable motor with nitrous engaged to a sudden blown engine.

Now this team has become even more fascinating. A team that made it to the Finals exuded more flaws than any Finals team in history. It was never a team in complete control. It was never LeBron’s team. It was never a team securely in the hands of Dwayne Wade. The Heat couldn’t even sustain an identity with both Wade and James as its catalysts simultaneously. There was no way Spoelstra was ever going to give every player on the Miami roster something to connect with. And to top it all off, Wade and the rest of the ‘Big 3’ couldn’t manage to galvanize the team against the masses of hatred. Currently, Pat Riley seems to be the only variable capable of mending Miami’s identity issues, but nothing has entailed his return to coaching.
As if there wasn't enough pressure the Miami Heat this year, that pressure will inevitably double next year. After reaching the Finals once already, expectations will literally be championship-or-bust. If LeBron James' ultimate career goal is to keep us watching year after year, he's sure doing a good job of it so far.

The Miami Heat generated the most transfixing season saga a sports fan could possibly witness this season, and, barring a lockout, we get to do it all over again next year.