SCENE: He finishes the last glass of Cabernet, puts the bottle down with a cling and looks around. It’s dark. The game ended three hours ago and he realizes he hasn’t even plugged in the Christmas tree.
Thinking for a moment if the night deserves it, he walks over to the tree. Empty glass still in hand. Alas, the lights come on. The low lights shine a soft red and green, dotted with other crayon colors.
He stands back on that night before Christmas eve.
It doesn’t help.
Thinking some more, he wonders about opening another bottle of red before deciding it’s not worth the trouble. Instead he grabs his laptop, plops down on the couch and opens it. He realizes he never closed out of the final box score. Philadelphia 91, Miami 87.
“Oh, right, that’s why I drank all that wine.”
He opens a new tab and starts writing. Besides fermented grapes, writing is his only other release. He finds it’s easier to write when things are bad than when things are good. So there’s that.
He knows he needs to write, just doesn’t know about what. He browses advanced stats on NBA.com. Twitter. r/Heat. Nothing really ignites his passion. Then he comes across this quote from Dwyane Wade.
WADE to reporters: “This is what we got, guys. This is it.”
— Joseph Goodman, Sports Enthusiast 🎟🍺 (@JoeGoodmanJr) December 24, 2014
“Is this it?” “Oh, that song by The Strokes.” He finds the lyrics.
"Can’t you see I’m trying? I don’t even like it. I just lied to Get to your apartment, now I’m staying Here just for a while I can’t think ’cause I’m just way too tired"
Maybe that’s what the Heat are thinking. Pat Riley, Erik Spoelstra and the gang. They tried to build a team when LeBron walked away. Maybe they don’t like how it shook out, but they tried.
They also lied to us. That is, if you consider the massive PR stunt they pulled a lie. And, in a way, public relations is rooted in lying… or hiding the truth.
“Heat Lifer,” he says. “Toughness,” he says. “You’ll like the way this team plays,” he says.
And we believed Riles because, why wouldn’t we?
So here are the Heat, on the television in your apartment. Here are the Heat, way too tired of a season undoubtedly headed nowhere but to disappointment, to close out a game against the 76ers in which they led by 23 points.
He finds another quote in the Sun-Sentinel recap.
"“At this point,” Spoelstra said, “everything is out the window.”"
Spoelstra’s quote was in reference to Chris Bosh, and that he may not have to practice before suiting up for Christmas vs the Cavs as is typically team policy.
“But what if he was talking about the bigger picture?”
He thinks about what could be thrown out the window. Positionless basketball? Blitz-and-help defense? The roles and rotations we are used to seeing?
“I mean, Chris Andersen has been moved into the starting lineup. Who thought that would ever happen?”
He thinks.
“Is Bosh done at center, then, when he comes back? Will they move him to power forward? That would be interesting.”
He decides not to think too much of it. After all, Spo’s lineups have been more difficult to predict than the subject of James Franco’s next motion picture.
One more quote.
Spo: "I'm not above getting my hands dirty and fighting for it, fighting for the season."
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) December 24, 2014
There’s Spo, ever the warrior. While Dwyane Wade is naming Strokes songs Spo is holding onto his identity. This will be Spo’s biggest test yet, and it sounds like he’ll need to motivate the face of the franchise to get back on board.
“This isn’t it,” he says.
He closes the laptop, deciding not to write anything. It’s not worth getting too high, nor too low. Not with 53 games still left to play. Even if this season may go nowhere, it’s worth sticking it out.
“No one thought we were real fans before, let’s at least show them we can support a LeBron-less team now,” he thinks to himself.
Knowing the game probably won’t change anything, he gets up, puts the laptop back on the desk and unplugs the tree lights. He pours himself a glass of water, content but melancholy, and heads for the bed.
The last light in the apartment clicks off.