Miami Heat: It’s All Literally What The ‘Culture’ Is, Whether You Get It Or Not
The aforementioned handling of the situation between D.Wade and Coach Spo was handled the same way that the most recent scenario was. It was treated like what it will be in the grand scheme of it all, no big deal.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said it best on Thursday’s First Take. Here are a few of his thoughts.
"You see how they handle it? They should give lessons on how to handle a situation. Erik Spoelstra didn’t duck the question. Erik Spoelstra didn’t duck the issue. He just didn’t give you the minute details of what transpired because he’s not going to betray any trust. But they didn’t evade the issue, they didn’t say “no comment”, or anything like that."
That’s how it is supposed to be done. That’s what the Miami Heat Culture is all about.
They will fix them, but things like this happen. When you work as hard towards a collective goal in as intense a manner as the Miami Heat require you to do so, things are bound to boil over.
That’s just what happened. These weren’t or aren’t the only scenarios across Miami Heat history either.
Take the Gary Payton and D.Wade scenario from Ira Winderman’s earlier linked tweet. Take the incident between Shaquille O’Neal and Pat Riley.
You know, the one that gave us this beautiful Udonis Haslem quote.
"It wasn’t even a fight, they were just going at it. The fight was me trying to hold Shaq back and he threw me like a sack of potato chips…I’m trying to save Pat’s old ass and Shaq grabbed me and swung me. He threw me down like that and I was just trying to stop him. Imagine if he really wanted a piece of me? I would’ve had to tase him!"
Yea, one of those incidents may have eventually seen the dismissal of one of the greatest big men ever, but the Big 3 was formed just a season or so later, so that too wasn’t the worst thing in the world. The point of it all is this.
This has happened before and more often than not, in overwhelming fashion, the incident goes on to galvanize the Miami Heat team, in some form or fashion towards whatever the best thing is for them at that point. Perhaps that’s winning a title or perhaps it’s more geared towards building one of the most iconic ensembles to ever grace the NBA hardwood.
Whichever the case may be, or wherever it falls in between on that spectrum—that’s, kind of, the whole point.
It probably won’t be the last time it happens, though perhaps not in front of that big an audience, but it won’t be that much of a deal then either, if you know what team you are watching that is. So, expect this one to be one that you look back on in the near future, perhaps even saying “hey, that was when it really all started to come together”.
And you know what, for a team that’s already been one of the best in the league and the East’s best for most of the year—that could be the real scary thing.
For everybody else, of course.