LeBron James and the Miami Heat 2010-2011: A Heat Fan’s Perspective
By: Daniel B. (
www.encircling.us)
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Let me start this off by saying that yes, there are true sports fans that reside in Miami, Florida. I know it’s hard to believe, but we do exist. Scary, I know.
Growing up here in South Florida, I remember football being my first love as a child. My father cheered for the Miami Dolphins and Hurricanes, so naturally I liked the teams that he cheered for. As I got older, my parents bought us a basketball hoop and I played basketball as an after school pasttime and slowly started getting into the NBA. I remember not having a hometown team to cheer for at the time, so I basically rooted for any team that played against the Los Angeles Lakers because my (douchebag) cousin liked them. I subsequently started liking baseball, hockey, and soccer as the city acquired these franchises one-by-one.
At this point, I know you’re asking yourself: ‘Why do I need to know all of this and what the heck does this have to do with LeBron James and the Miami Heat?’ Well, I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with the media this past season, but Miami fans have been receiving a beating from the media for being considered the “worst sports fans.” Former NBA player, Charles Barkley, being the most vocal of the group.
So, in your opinion, is Miami the “Worst Sports Town”?
If you asked me to give you my dead honest opinion on whether Miami has the worst sports fanbase in the country, I would have to say that I do agree on some level, HOWEVER, there are several reasons why and it has to do with the city’s diverse population and everyone not being on the same page. I have been living here my entire life (35+ years) and believe me when I tell you, we have people from all parts of the world living here. If you thought that the city was only comprised of retirees, Cubans, Jewish and gay people living down by the beach you might have been accurate several years ago, but you would be way off on your assessment nowadays. With such a wide assortment of people, you find that they fall into one or more of the following categorizations:
People that do not like sports at all. They are only here to soak in the sun and the lifestyle. The short and simple: They’ve never seen or held a ball before in their life.
People from different countries that only follow sports and sports teams from their country of origin. The few that do get into American sports wind up cheering for other teams (see Bandwagoners).
My personal pet peeve: Fans from other states. They move down here, criticize everything about the city, show no loyalty and refuse to follow any of the local sports teams. The more obnoxious sect purchase tickets en masse and go to home games only when their team is in town and start rooting obnoxiously and picking fights, but that’s another story.
Bandwagoners. This is not to say that other areas do not have their fair share of bandwagoners, but Miami seems to have the most. I’m guessing because since the majority of people here are from somewhere else and don’t feel a sense of loyalty to the area, they just start cheering for the best sports team at the moment or whichever has the prettiest logo, Lord knows why.
Finally, you have the true Miami sports fans. They are born and raised here and follow their home teams religiously like I, and so many others like myself do. We are a precious few, but do exist.
Finally, I know it sounds almost too cliché to say, but there truly is a lot more to do here than in most other cities. One could argue that cities like New York have just as much, if not more, things to do and still manage to sell out games. That is a valid argument and I do agree on some level, however, New York has a much more efficient transportation system that ties the city together. Try leaving work at 5PM or 6PM and drive across the city on a normal traffic day in Miami to get to a game on time and get back to me after you have done this a few times (Florida Panther games are in another city, for example). Unless you’re a millionaire with all the time in the world and not a working stiff like the rest of us, you will not last a long time doing this.
Speaking of millionaires, you have to be one to afford the seats in the lower bowl at the American Airlines Arena. The lucky ones that could afford those seats usually show up fashionably late and are just there to be seen (think L.A. Lakers fans). The true fans making the noise you hear on television are the ones sitting in the nosebleed sections and depressingly enough, the stand-only sections during the playoffs.
What do you think about what LeBron James did to Cleveland with “The Decision”?
I do agree with Cleveland fans that “The Decision” was done in poor taste. I understand that LeBron was trying to turn the media circus into something positive for charity and I give him kudos for that, but if I were in his shoes, I would have at least given the Cleveland fans notice that he was thinking about not returning just to save them the heartache and spare them the embarrrassment on national television. I am not saying this because I feel he has an obligation to do so, after all he did play and fulfill the terms of his 7-year contract without a hitch, but just a little warning would have gone a long way. Let’s say that deep down inside he really didn’t care and was approaching this strictly from a business perspective. Wouldn’t you want to keep as many of those Cleveland fans as possible? Personally, I do not understand why he did it the way he did, but he was obviously receiving bad advice from someone (and listened).
What do you think about the Three Kings/Yes.We.Did. welcome party to announce the LeBron James and Chris Bosh signings?
I have to admit that I was not particularly pleased with the welcome party. Personally, I’m a fan of athletes and sports teams that quietly and humbly go about their business. For example, back in 2007 I was ecstatic when the Miami Dolphins acquired Joey Porter because we needed a capable pass rusher to put alongside Jason Taylor, but when I saw him talking trash before games I was quickly turned off as a fan. In my experience, the athletes that talk are the ones that usually wind up on the losing end.
From a Miami Heat fan’s perspective, I understand that the signing was definitely something exciting for the area, however, I have always perceived the Miami Heat organization as being a classy one, so I will admit that the “Heat welcome party” threw me for a loop. I’m sure LeBron was half joking and having fun when he spouted his famous “not one, not two, not three” line, but it still made me shake my head in disbelief.
What did you think about how LeBron just “quit” in the 2011 finals?
I will admit that I only follow my hometown teams and sometimes catch the occasional divisional rival game just to root for their demise, so I have not watched LeBron play in many games while he was in Cleveland and will not comment on his past performances. However, I will say that from what I have seen in this 2011 NBA Finals, LeBron started off playing better than we all anticipated. Many fans and talking heads in the media thought that he had gotten over the fourth quarter “hump” when he consistently nailed shots at the end of games in both the Boston and Chicago series, however, Dallas presented him with new challenges defensively and it was enough to keep him away from the rim and force him to make a pass or shoot low percentage shots with the 24-second clock dwindling down.
Again, I am not claiming to know everything there is to know about LeBron because of my limited time spent watching him, but from what I have seen, he seems to be mentally fragile. He seems to only play his best when the score is close or when his team has a comfortable lead. As soon as someone gets in his face or things don’t go according to plan, he bails and does not put the team on his back when it counts the most. I’ve heard rumors saying that he and Dwyane Wade had a falling out of sorts at some point in the Dallas series, right around the late game collapse in Game 2 and the win in Game 3. I do find some truth in that because of how little involved LeBron was in Game 3. After the game, Wade and Bosh embraced, while LeBron simply gave Wade a “fist bump,” foregoing their usual after game hug. From that point on, you could tell just by LeBron’s body language that he just wasn’t playing with the same aggression and it wound up affecting the way the series went. LeBron refused to get involved and deferred to other players as soon as he got the ball. He couldn’t get rid of the ball fast enough it seemed. Could it be that LeBron felt that he was out of the running for Finals MVP consideration and could not accept Wade winning? How could he face Cleveland and other detractors in the media after being labeled “Scottie Pippen” and “Robin” to Wade’s “Batman” if he didn’t win the title and Finals MVP?
Now, if there wasn’t a problem between him and Wade and this was strictly a deep-seeded psychological issue where the moment was seemingly too big and forced him to “freeze up,” then he needs to seek therapeutic help and improve himself over the summer or just give up and walk away from the game for good. Perhaps tattooing “Chosen 1” and wearing Jordan’s #23 when he first came into the league set people’s expectations way too high and now he finds intense mounting pressure as the years pass to fill those shoes. There are some that believe that all of these confidence issues stem from his childhood. We all know that he did not have a strong father figure in his life and was raised solely by his mother who has her own personal struggles with drugs and the law. I am not trying to play armchair psychologist here, but there has to be something in his mind that prevents him from being successful and he needs to work things out in his mind before coming back next season because the pressure and scrutiny is only going to get worse, especially after what happened in the 2011 NBA Finals.
What should the Miami Heat do with LeBron James moving forward?
Many people are saying that the Miami Heat should keep Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and get rid of LeBron while he still has value and I will admit that the thought had crossed my mind on several occasions during the Dallas series. Why? Well, after all this is Dwyane Wade’s team no matter what anyone says, and having two alpha males on the court playing the same role ruins the Heat’s offensive flow. However, I believe that before the Heat do anything that drastic, they should consider getting rid of head coach Eric Spoelstra.
I believe that Coach Spoelstra is a good up-and-coming coach and it would be a shame to let him go at this point in his career, however, if you want to keep LeBron James and get as much as you can out of him, you need a coach that is not passive and not scared to get in his face. Strong-minded Players like Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem for example, do not need to be told what to do, however, LeBron is the type of player that needs to be pushed on a consistent basis. Simply putting the ball in his LeBron’s hands and having everyone clear out of the way (“LeIso,” as they call it) is not going to help the Heat win any championships and I hope this finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks made that loud and clear.
If it were up to me, I would have Pat Riley step into the head coaching role at least until LeBron James wins his first title and gets that monkey off his back. If changes are not made in the offseason, we will continue to see LeBron James do his annual post season meltdown when it counts the most.
