Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra set the media world ablaze on Thursday as he told the press that the Heat didn’t care about their Game 5 narratives.
The Miami Heat are in a must-win situation of their own here in the 2020 NBA Finals. It is what it is.
That doesn’t mean that isn’t literal though. They “must win” or it’s all over.
Their season, The season, and their bid for the 2020 NBA title. Most people tend to think it’s already over though.
That’s the vibe you get if you pay attention to the sports media, the storylines, and the narratives being painted daily about any and everything that ever goes on inside the world of sports. We are listening.
We see these narratives and portrayals. Nothing gets past the watchful and detailed eye.
That makes it all the more appropriate then that the next person we will mention has seen all of this as well. That would be one Erik Spoelstra, or Spo, the head man for the Miami Heat.
When asked a question about his team on Thursday, Spo had something interesting to say. Here it is, per the youtube account of Miami radio personality, Brendan Tobin.
At around the one minute mark, a reporter from La Gazzetta Dello Sport in Italy asks Spo “Going into Game 5, you guys are obviously on the brink of elimination. What is the thing you have stressed about the most going into this game? The mental aspect..the adjustments you want to make?”
Spo responded:
"Uhh, Look, we think it’s a really competitive series. We have a purpose for why we are here. We are competing for a title.And it’s the first team to four wins. You know, with a lot of different narratives out there, we don’t give a S-H-*-T what everybody else thinks. Um, you know this is everything that we wanted this year, the opportunity to fight for and compete for a title.And that hasn’t changed at all through these first games."
Here’s the thing. When you are apart of the Miami Heat, nothing is easy.
This goes for practice, this goes for a film session, this goes for an individual workout, heck, this even goes for simply staying on the team. Easy isn’t what the Miami Heat do.
This isn’t an unfamiliar situation for any of them. When Coach Spo tells you that they have prepared for these scenarios, he isn’t lying.
Through everything that they do as a team or an organization, they are preparing for these moments. That’s why they practice, workout, and drill peak conditioning so hard.
They are physically and mentally preparing you for these kinds of moments. As these are the moments you want and hope to be in as a player and as a team.
Do the hard work when no one is watching so that when they are, the hard work doesn’t seem so hard. That’s why the Miami Heat don’t care, as they have done hard work all season long and this is just the next task on that list.
Don’t count the Heat out just yet. We promise you.