Remember when LeBron James announced he was taking his talents to South Beach?
Come on, focus, this is important. Think hard!
No sooner had the world’s axis shifted to Miami than the unconquering hero compared himself, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy.
“I’m just not sure which one of us will be taking the sky hook,” a smiling LeBron told NBATV’s Steve Smith during training camp.
Other than designating that artist, the trio is almost exactly like the Lakers’ holy trinity minus the three championships accrued as a unit — 11 more split up. The Heat’s freshly recruited pair of aces, of course, flaunts none, whereas Wade has credit for one in ’06.
Nevertheless, it was Heat this, Heat that . . . the greatest collectables assembled since my Time-Life Polka-palooza.
First team to go 83-0 in an 82-game season, practically predicted Jeff Van Gundy, ABC/ESPN’s answer to TNT’s Charles Barkley, the Salutatorian of Stupidity.
ESPN-TV launched daily segments designed expressly to scrutinize the Heat and hired a Cavaliers beat writer, whose hand was so steady on LeBron’s pulse he was the next to last media member to know he was leaving (I got the booby prize), to tailgate the team. Brian Windhorst’s exclusive assignment is to apprise readers of each brainwave, sound bite and recital . . . and appraise its audience of every incident, accident and possibility, real or imagined.
Nothing in moderation, in other words, and, not to be exceeded in excess, TNT scheduled thousands of pre- and post-game shows on site.
Of course, that was well before Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem (shelved for a minimum of three months) sustained thumb and ankle injuries that required surgery and the Heat got harpooned seven times in 15 games . . . though these revolting developments probably heighten interest of festive fans outside Miami, not harm it.
Time to re-focus; some of you might also remember that while the nitworks and national press were hyping the Heat feverishly they basically looked off the two-time defending champion Lakers.
Don’t read me wrong; nobody intermediately coherent picked an opponent to waste them in the west, but L.A.’s regal coach with the 11 rings and a Black Mamba often weren’t a conversation piece until entranced announcers and authors somehow bated their breath.
Meanwhile, the Lakers have bumped off 13 of 15 opponents going into tonight’s Salt Lake City ordeal and boast the NBA’s second-best record to the 12-1 Spurs. Granted, nine of the Lakers’ games were at home. Still, all were played without the 7-story services of Andrew Bynum.
So, what does Phil Jackson do with such a quick getaway?
Like some half-baked fan or overreacting reporter, he sticks his fork into the Heat.
“That record, I think, says a lot about coming together with some real talented guys, and not having a base,” Jackson remarked on a Chicago radio station the day before Miami’s third straight setback on Wednesday, a 104-95 loss in Orlando, utterly ignoring the crucial absence of Miller from the git-go and Haslem, out for all but 16 minutes of those three losses.
“The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene, is that eventually these guys that were recruited, Bosh and James, by Pat Riley and [owner] Micky Arison, are going to come in and say, ‘We feel you [Riley] can do a better job [than Erik Spoelstra] coaching the team. We came here on the hopes this would work,’ ” Jackson speculated.
“That’s kind of my take on it, that eventually if things don’t straighten out soon, it could be the [Stan] Van Gundy thing all over again.”
Flush with the spirit of the season, Van Gundy coyly countered, saying: “Phil has no idea what the Van Gundy situation was because, even though he coaches in our league, he certainly had no insight or knowledge of that. So an analogy he’d make to my situation would be totally useless because he doesn’t have any clue what the situation was in that case.”
Other than quitting on your team in mid-semester being an endearing brotherly trait, it’s not known for sure if anything else was behind Van Gundy’s bailout 21 games (11-10) into the 2005-06 season.
“To second-guess another coach and comment on a situation he knows nothing about, is inappropriate, and it’s also ignorant,” Van Gundy soothingly added.
As painful as it is for me to agree with Stan on anything, and that goes double for his supercilious sibling, the mannequin makes a good point. Sounding like just another goofy talk-show voice, Jackson insulted Spoelstra, Riley, LeBron and Bosh without coming up for air or acuity.
Forget for the moment Jackson’s lack of professionalism for discussing the state of affairs of a fraternity member, you’d think someone who spent so many years in the minors and as an assistant before getting his first head coaching job would be sensitive to what Spoelstra’s going through and decline comment.
I’d have more respect for Jackson had he said what he really means in reply to those who maintain anybody could’ve coached Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaq and Kobe to championships: “See, it isn’t as easy as people think to coach superstars and be successful.”
Never doubted it for a moment. But why such deviousness at Spoelstra’s expense?
On second thought, you don’t suppose the Zen Hen — understanding how quickly runaway egos can turn on coaches when great expectations fade fast — actually is throwing Spoelstra a lifeline by disrespecting James (Bosh doesn’t have the juice) for an excuse he may be tempted to employ?
Who knows, experience and intuition may be alerting Jackson to what evil lurks just around the curve. But his indictment of Riley is sophomoric. Again, acting like an unoriginal fan or an impetuous columnist, he anticipates the Heat president faxing in Spoelstra’s resignation and his return to the sideline.
That ain’t happening! First of all, Riley and Wade, for sure, have absolute faith in Spoelstra. It’s not his fault the Heat is without a full complement of comets orbiting the stars.
As inimitable as Kareem, Magic and Big Game James were, they needed Jamaal Wilkes, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis, A.C. Green, Bob McAdoo and Mychal Thompson to get three crowns.
Even if Riley felt compelled to accept a mission gone out of control once Miller and the irreplaceable Haslem got healthy, he still wouldn’t do it, it says here!
Not when Isiah Thomas is available.