The Miami Heat have been out of the drama-mill for the entirety of this season, aside from the Jimmy Butler frenzy, but Dion Waiters’ is back and apparently wants to fill this organization with unnecessary drama.
As the Miami Heat finally get back their infamous guard Dion Waiters, he goes on an expletive tirade due to his lack of minutes over the past week. And yes, it has only been a WEEK since Waiters has been back in a Heat jersey.
The Heat decided yesterday that Waiters should be fined for his comments and that came because of the news per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, who gave us a blatantly honest Waiters’ attempting to explain his disagreement with how his situation has been mishandled over the past few games:
"“[Expletive] patience!” he said. “I want to play. I’ve been patient long enough. What do I got to be patient for? Come on man. I’ve been patient. I think everybody knows that. It’s time. What are we waiting for? If I’m out there, play me.”"
You can fill in the blanks, and if you do, you’ll be disappointed in the 27-year-old guard making $12 million this year. Waiters island has only played over 20 minutes once in his five games back in a Heat jersey, and in that game against the Denver Nuggets, Waiters’ showed his potential as a solid role player on this team scoring 15 points and facilitating 4 key assists.
However, what Waiters doesn’t seem to realize, this Heat team is not the old one he used to play for. This is a team that has more role players than before, and all of these players have earned their key minutes during Waiters’ injury.
Barry Jackson also relayed some frustration from head coach Erik Spoelstra on the matter, even going as far as saying there was a team meeting due to Waiters’ comments:
"“Spoelstra spoke to Waiters and there was team meeting to address his comments. Spoelstra made clear his comments – including calling for himself to be reinserted as starter – won’t help him achieve that objective."
Waiters’ most definitely has the potential to be a starter on this Heat team, however he isn’t “owed” anything, as he is insinuating through his expletive tirade in the locker room. Even players like Udonis Haslem have notably told Waiters’ that he should focus his anger in his play rather than put those frustrations in the media’s microphone.
Albeit, this is the Waiters that Pat Riley and the Heat decided to pay money to. For better or worse, Waiters’ loves himself some Dion Waiters, and that may just be the predicament that could potentially send the guard out of South Florida to another team via a trade.
We will see fairly soon if this story develops any further as the Heat play the Detroit Pistons tonight at 7 PM Eastern, stay tuned.