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Wojnarowski ?
What a surprise
MIAMI – The words would come out of Old Man Riles’ playbook, a young coach desperate to rewire confusion and calamity into something strong and sure. Oh, this is no surprise. Oh, this will be great for us come the playoffs. With his declarations of processes and timetables, Eric Spoelstra sounded like a new-age CEO spinning the shareholders. His Miami Heat are soft, staggered and fragile to the touch.
“In the last 48 hours, we’re getting to know each other,” Spoelstra said. “This is good. You need to face this adversity.
“You need to stumble.”
Yes, they’re getting to know each other. With two horrific losses within three days at American Airlines Arena, the Heat are mortified to find themselves fighting to stay above .500, and Spoelstra is getting to know his superstar, LeBron James(notes). Chris Bosh(notes) came and went, Dwyane Wade(notes) stood in the corners and watched. Most of all, James found himself in postseason shape, closing a loss to the Boston Celtics with a missed layup, two missed free throws and a corner 3-pointer off the side of the backboard.
The world’s bearing down, times are tumultuous, and James is the one Heat star in playoff form.
“For myself, 44 minutes is too much,” James declared. “I think Coach Spo knows that. Forty minutes for D-Wade is too much. We have to have as much energy as we can to finish games out.”
There you go, Coach Spo.
Get to know him well.
Two days earlier, James had done nothing in overtime and ultimately decided the difference was a Hall of Fame coach, Jerry Sloan, who knew exactly what the Heat were going to do. James never takes responsibility, never says, “I’m the MVP and I need to do more.” He didn’t do it in Cleveland, and he’s never going to do it in Miami. Now, 44 minutes in a grudge game with the Celtics is too much. Always an out, always an excuse.
The Celtics were machinery. They beat up the Heat, obliterated them on the boards and bludgeoned them in a 112-107 victory. The Heat were never close, even with a late fool’s-gold rally that never truly threatened the Celtics. With their brilliant passing, precise shooting and ferocious physical play, no one exposes the flaws of these Heat like the Celtics.
Boston believes it can bully these Heat, believes they’re susceptible to games of the mind and body. When it was over, Big Baby Davis marched out of the showers and declared: “No one can spoil this night. Good for us to come in and spank that ass.”
As the Celtics hung around town for a couple days before the game, they loved hearing the Heat lament about how tough teams had been on them, how they’d been targeted for physical play. So the Celtics started laying out Miami players with forceful screens, flagrant fouls and crushing shots at the rim. They harassed Wade into missing 10 of 12 shots and made James work for his 35 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.
Frequent isolations are reducing Wade to an offensive sidebar, and the death of ball movement is turning these Heat into something so eerily familiar with the Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron, and four guys watching LeBron.
There’s time for the Heat to become a more fluid, more polished offensive team. They’re not missing X’s and O’s as much as they’re missing a mindset. They created something that they played make-believe about embracing. They talked tough about reveling in a world that despises them, only to find it’s a bigger burden of scrutiny than they ever imagined.
Make no mistake: Wade and Bosh don’t want to be bad guys. It isn’t in their DNA. Bosh is a goofball who dresses up like a cowboy on YouTube. He loved the idea of coming to Miami for max money without max pressure. As Bosh figured, the big shots belonged to D-Wade and James, and he’d get all the benefits without the burdens.
“At times it will be bumpy, and this is a bumpy stretch,” Spoelstra said. “Nobody said this was going to be easy.”
No, the Heat just acted that way. They act surprised that people want to pop them in the mouth, that TVs and websites crackle with disdain for them. All those players like Eddie House(notes) who thought they were going on tour with a rock band? They’re now under the kind of daily national – even global – examination that they’ve never experienced. No one ever cared whether House missed a week’s worth of 3-pointers in the past. Now it’s dissected and digested everywhere.
And let’s face it: They’re getting buried because of LeBron. Now, they’re the bad guys, and they’ve never had to deal with the thickness of that haze. They turn on the television, the Internet, and people are wishing ill, reveling in the small failures of a young season. In a lot of ways, James is cut out for it. He’s oblivious. He surrounds himself with so many yes-men, so much skewed perspective, that his lack of self-awareness almost benefits him.
Before Spoelstra let the Heat leave the locker room on Thursday night, he declared that it was “us against the world.” Only, it isn’t the Heat against the world. It’s the Heat against themselves, against the backdrop of a hysteria they created through a smoky stage, public preening and promises of five and six championship rings. Spoelstra is kidding himself when he talks about a “different timeline” to develop the Heat, when he suggests that a 5-4 record isn’t such a big deal.
The Heat are long on talk and short on toughness. Right now, this is a mentally soft team that the Celtics exposed and will expose again – unless the Heat find some leadership, some character, some staying power. Riles would send his protégée to the interview room deep inside American Airlines Arena, and the words were straight out of his self-help manual: a young coach embracing the adversity and declaring it’ll make his team stronger come playoff time. Only, Spoelstra knows full well that he had better win, and win big, or he’ll never make it to the playoffs.
Erik Spoelstra pulled the pages straight out of Riles’ playbook, trying to transform chaos into a coachable moment. After the second devastating loss in three days, Spoelstra gave the Heat a big speech about staying together, about a world that would want to do harm to them. Yes, we’ll get to know each other now, Spoelstra said with a sigh. We’ll get to know all about us.
Times are tumultuous, and here was LeBron James, claiming that 44 minutes had worn him out, that he had nothing left in the end, and that Wade had played too much as well. One night, and King James had an issue with too many minutes on the floor. Always easier to blame some vague force, always easier to escape the responsibility. There you go, Coach Spo. There’s your star. Enjoy him.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...ticsheat111210
lol Heat
Wojnarowski ?
What a surprise
those minutes are too much...just play Magloire, Arroyo, Chalmers instead.
News Flash: You pay for superstars, your bench stinks.
To show the lighter side of the very sophisticated and extremely distinguished LeBron James so he can share some of his sense of humor, his comments about 44 minutes being too much have given us here at LRMR an idea how to positively spin the quote. We are in the process of approving a campaign with Four Loko that will feature a commercial called "44 Loko." It will demonstrate how unbelievably approachable and down to earth his majesty can be when it comes to his lowly fans. It wasn't about blaming Coach Spo. This is about 44 minutes in a loss making him a little bit loco after the game.
You see, we at LRMR Marketing are always looking for exciting new avenues to share our clients with their fans. We are currently in negotiations with Kanye West and the Far East Movement to work on a record that will be featured in the 44 Loko commercials to diss Adrian Wojnarowski. Tentatively the single will be called "I see a whole bunch a es and Wojo is one of em." A (tiny) percentage of the proceeds of sales will go to the Exotic Dancer College Fund. We are trying to help teenage strippers pay for school. es need help too, even Adrian Wojnarowski.
What should we do? Whatever we do, we do it for the ing kid strippers.
More minutes for Stackhouse
looks like Pat Riley is taking notes too:
The TNT crew caught Pat Riley in the stands, making notes on a long sheet of paper. Riles would scribble, then awkwardly try to stuff the paper into the breast pocket of his sports jacket. By the time the Heat's team president finally got it to slide in, it was time to pull it back out and make another notation.
Woj is easily one of my favorite sports writers. Always straight to the point and hits the nail on the head.
riley notes:
Don't fire Spoelstra
Fire Spoelstra ┼┼┼┼┼ ┼┼┼┼┼ ┼┼┼┼┼ ││
LeHype will get Coach Spoelstra fired. Just like Shaq with SVG. This time around I think Riley is too old to expend the necessary energy to coach this team. I could be wrong but I just don't see Riley at his age going to the bench. When he does, and he fails, then what? He'll let Spoelstra take the heat (no pun intended) and continue to advise from the FO. I saw him in the stands last night taking notes. No doubt he will be in all of their ears - probably as I type this.
But even he can't save this team. I say they should trade RuPaul for more pieces and start Haslem in his spot. I'm sure they can get a PG and a big body willing to protect the yard for RuPaul. Then again, based on his ty play this year I'm not sure anybody would want this SF who masquerades as a PF and allows a PG to dunk on him.
Agreed. He seems to love LeHype too. Well, tough love that is.
The problem with bringing Riley to the bench is that he will not coddle James or put up with these antics. And nobody knows how Lebron will react to that, because he's never been the most mature or unassuming professional.LeHype will get Coach Spoelstra fired. Just like Shaq with SVG. This time around I think Riley is too old to expend the necessary energy to coach this team. I could be wrong but I just don't see Riley at his age going to the bench. When he does, and he fails, then what? He'll let Spoelstra take the heat (no pun intended) and continue to advise from the FO. I saw him in the stands last night taking notes. No doubt he will be in all of their ears - probably as I type this.
But even he can't save this team. I say they should trade RuPaul for more pieces and start Haslem in his spot. I'm sure they can get a PG and a big body willing to protect the yard for RuPaul. Then again, based on his ty play this year I'm not sure anybody would want this SF who masquerades as a PF and allows a PG to dunk on him.
yeah, i read this... gotta say, LeBron's a hypocrite.
i will make a youtube video abotu this in about 1 hour
LeBron. I'm all for giving people breaks and second chances, but not when it comes to stuck up prima donnas that declare themselves king without having won . LeBron is a bag and I'm glad people have become aware of that fact.
Oh no doubt. It's a shame too. LeHype has G.O.A.T. talent that will never be fully tapped into because of all of the yes men and yes women that spoiled him rotten throughout his life. It's sad because as good as he is now, he could be even better. As scary as that sounds. But because of the people who have enabled him all of his life he has turned into a bag.
Who complains about having played "too many minutes?" Better yet, Who openly questions his coaches' decision to play him (and DWhistle) too much through the media? Pure comedy.
What's even funnier for me is his team in Cleveland last year is better than the Hype team he is on this year. He should have stayed home. What a dumbass.
Last edited by LkrFan; 11-12-2010 at 01:04 PM.
What the did he think was going to happen?
Stupid comment from Lebron..he should stick to donating millions to charity and helping kids, this is out of place for him..
It's pretty clear that Spoelstra has lost the team and doesn't have any respect from them..
BTW, Wojo needs to be killed already..
You're not a fan of Wojo's consistent vitriol? I love it.
So Lebron's excuse for DwYane going 0-fer in the first half was that he played too many minutes by the end of the game?
Idiot.
Wojo's writing is the equivalent of giving me an assignment of writing weekly articles about Kobe Bryant..
Mike Brown was one of Coach Pop's assistants. Before he got to Cleveland they didn't play much defense. When he got there the Cavs defense took major steps and made them le contenders. The thing that held them back was the same "LeHype" ball offense that LeHype brought with him to South Beach. The problem for Mike Brown was he didn't have 100% support from the Cavs' FO to reign in LeHype - so that the Cavs could take the next steps. Mike Brown had those guys headed in the right direction but was ultimately canned because of LeHype's strangle hold he had on the organization. I foresee Spoelstra suffering the same fate, but not this year. There is too much work to be done and too many holes to fill for Riley to step in right now.
So Wojo is fair and balanced, like you've claim to be about Kobe?
He has a funny as signature though.
Heat organization cannot afford to not make it to the Finals at least. It would be the most monumental failure in history of the game.
Rile will have to step in this year, and take this team as far as possible. It is balls out this year.
Most NBA coaches are mediocre coaches to begin with..NBA assistant coaches are usually good at one facet of the game..Mike Brown, like Spoelstra, is a great defensive coach with extreme limitations on the offensive end..his flaws as a coach were exploited during the playoffs, where his rotations vs. Boston were horrible and he had no ability to adjust(just like the series vs. Orlando the year before)..he also had very little ability to call plays..
Miami's current offense is the same offense they've been running under Spoelstra before Lebron got there..the only difference is that instead of running iso plays for Wade all game, they run them for Lebron AND Wade now..
There are only 4-5 good coaches in the NBA..the rest of them hurt their teams, for the most part..
Didn't LeBron get offended at the suggestion of Mike Brown a couple seasons ago when Brown said LeBron looked fatigued at the end of a playoff game? Now he's ing about too many minutes in the 9th game of the season? WTF?! He's 25 years old and it's the beginning of the season.
I think LeBron, Wade, and Bosh are all a little s shocked that they're not rolling over everyone and they aren't playing all the great individually or with each other. Lol @ Dwyane Wade's post game comments that the Heat are the best 5-4 team in the league. Lol @ LeBron's comments at that celebration before the season started that "Pat Riley could be running the wings" tossing them alley oops.
I think they're finally coming to the realization that they actually have to work for this. But I do think they'll work out most of the kinks and still be one of the legit le contenders by the end of the season.
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