Miami Heat: Re-branding, and nail-biting in team’s home opener
Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem address the Miami Heat and its fans ahead of another, down to the wire contest.
Under the dimmed lights of the AmericanAirlines Arena, Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem took center court to address the Miami Heat and its fanbase.
"“We want to thank our fans everywhere for your unwavering support. It’s meant so much over our career, and it’s going to continue to mean a lot to this organization,” Wade said."
Haslem added the requisite, “We are going to go out here and play hard, give you everything we’ve got,” but it wasn’t just talk. What was a 26-point deficit, was eventually erased to one, as the Heat did exactly what Haslem professed and left everything on the court.
But before the nail-biting, scream-inducing performance, led by a sharpshooting Wade and Goran Dragic, Miami set out to embrace a bit of rebranding at the team’s home opener for its 31st NBA season.
A New Image
When LeBron James and Chris Bosh arrived in 2010, Miami was awash in an aura of presupposed success.
Unifying the power of three of the NBA’s All-Time greatest players, put a target on the Heat’s back. Teams would be gunning to take down the organization, before it had the chance to amass a fortune of Larry O’Brien trophies and championship ring ceremonies.
Thus, the team debuted the its roster on opening night to the backdrop of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”, an experimental rock jam that erupts with drums, synths and electric guitar in the track’s final moments.
As Collins sang, the Heat stood, dressed for an all-black affair wearing suits and jackets as sparks and fire popped around them.
The video was a symbol of the coming storm that were the eventual Eastern Conference Champion Heat.
However, a year later, after falling to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, Miami switched up the soundtrack, in favor of a classy, string laden tune. Still rocking the a blacked out look, Miami clung to it’s higher path, incorporating the local style and swagger in its image.
Finally, after securing its first title with the new group in 2012, Miami switched up the style once again, favoring The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” as the soundtrack to the team’s intro; gone are the finely pressed linens and string ensembles.
Instead, the roster posted up in a musty weight room, illuminated only by the flames tearing through the background.
As Bosh, Wade, James and the rest of the team lifted the unsecured weights, flexed bristly lengths of rope and pulled chain link equipment, the Heat were simultaneously re-branding, owning the villainous image on which the Association imprinted them.
For the next five years this would be the image that the Heat used.
The song would change, but the imagery stayed. But without Wade or James to lead the bad-boy appeal, the team lost in its attempt to play to an old tune.
So when Miami debuted its 2018-19 intro video against the Charlotte Hornets last night, it was the perfect hand after reshuffling the deck on the organization’s future.
“Miami nice, Miami mean, switch it up/ Miami raw, Miami Heat, switch it up,” Denzel Curry raps, a team-centric remix of his 2018 cut “Switch it Up”.
Now, player images fade in from black.
No one plays to the camera. No one flexes in the gym.
Just stare after stare from Miami’s roster, ending with an explosive appearance by Wade at the video’s end.
https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/1053692319759851521
New Look, New Game
That new image captured the new look Heat.
Though the roster is almost exactly the same as last season, save for Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten hanging out on the bench before the G-League season starts, the team ditches any lingering ideas about what Miami is.
Like the video, this team will speak for itself, be it on questions of work ethic or team culture.
Early on, however, that team culture was wavering.
Regular signals of Heat struggles emerged early.
The team didn’t shoot a free-throw until three minutes into the second quarter. Meanwhile, Charlotte hit 60 percent of its first half 3’s and dug Miami into a 26-point deficit by the third quarter.
But almost perfectly synchronized with the team’s new song, the Heat switched it up in the second half. Dragic’s 13-point third quarter was accentuated by Wade making his first 3’s this season, both coming in the fourth and closing the now single digit Charlotte lead.
Though Miami fell short—thanks in part to a bailout whistle on a Kemba Walker drive, the team’s loss game captured it’s “don’t sleep” mentality. For the third time in three games, Miami has gone down to the buzzer.
Next. Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade turns back the clock and more. dark
Maybe the Heat have faltered against beatable teams, Orlando in particular, but the ability to switch things up down the stretch, will yield Miami staying power all season long.