the Miami Sports Dude

Man that was ugly. I blame JD. The worst part of it was the whole “worst loss by a defending champion on opening night” thing. But whatever. It means nothing. It was just a case of two different mind-sets. The Bulls came to play basketball, the Heat came to party. No big thing.

Thoughts On The Game & The Bulls
I will say that D-Wade did struggle a bit as he always does against Kirk Hindrich. But he still managed to drop 25 points. Unfortunately, no one else bothered to show up. Antoine Walker at this point just makes me laugh. What else can I do? We’re stuck with him and he is who he is. I’m sure I won’t be laughing when he’s pulling his crap when the games start to matter. But for now, his awkward ball handling and his horrible looking shots at the worst possible time has gotten sort of charming. See what winning a title does for your image?

The Bulls looked just as good as they did last year. That is, they play with a ton of energy and are lights out from the perimeter. Ben Wallace seems to have brought some swagger to this team. Ben Gordon is a very good ball player. At 35, PJ Brown is still a scrappy player and still a tough inside presence. And Andres Nocioni is still a dick. But they don’t impress me all that much. As JD pointed out in the comments, these Bulls are going to be media darlings all season long. But they have no true star on their team. They have no one who can step up and take over a ball game (or a series) like a D-Wade or a LeBron or a Nowitzki or a Nash or a Kobi or a Chauncey. They have a great bunch of players and I love Hinrich. But I think the media may want to hold off on crowning Chicago the 2007 NBA Champions after one game. There are still 3 or 4 teams in the East that are better. That includes the Heat.


Thoughts On the Ring Ceremony
How can I find anything wrong with it? You’ll need to go to an impartial source for any negative feelings about the pre-game ceremonies. The video highlights that kicked everything off brought back those great memories from this past June. All the playoff moments, the celebrations, the hoisting of the trophy. Awesome. Then the presentation of the rings. It had a strange graduation-like feel to it with the player’s name being called and then the Commish handing out the box, shaking the player’s hand and the awkward pose for the picture.

Some of the players like Zo, GP and Toine put the rings on immediately and started putting their hands to their faces and rubbing their chins. And damn those rings are huge. The 2003 Marlins still have the most impressive championship rings that I’ve ever seen but the Heats’ rings are right up there. Bling freakin bling!

Then, finally, they unveiled the banner. Man what a beautiful thing. The Dude got tears in his eyes. The kind of welling up that girls get when the handsome guy and the pretty girl who fought all the odds to win his heart kiss for the first time in one of them chick flicks. It was special. I can’t wait to get down to the AAA and just gawk at that thing and take tons of pictures of it.

That banner will hang there forever. Generations will come and go and that banner will remain. The Miami Heat are the 2006 NBA Champions. And nothing, nothing, nothing is ever going to take that away from us. Ever.

So last night was not about losing to the Bulls (even though it did suck to lose). Last night was about the rings. Last night was about the banner. Last night was about Zo and his speech to the fans – as corny as it was – on how thankful he and the rest of the team are for our support (as like warm as it can get round these parts) and for our energy and love for the team.

Last night was a culmination of why we’re sports fans. Why we root for our teams and live and die with every game. Why I write this blog and why you bother to read it (or even comment in it).

It’s why we love sports. It’s the pinnacle of it all. When your team wins the championship, all your energy and support and unconditional love is rewarded. There's nothing like it in the world.

So I’m not going to let last night’s loss spoil any of it. Last night, the Heat could do no wrong.

Last night, we were crowned Champions.

And it was beautiful.


(Now wake up and start playing some basketball you jackasses!!!)

Labels: Miami Heat