Miami Heat: Van Gundys Think Dwyane Wade and Co. Can Hang With History
In Part One of the two-part series devoted to the fantastical prognostications of the Coaching Van Gundy Brothers, the Heat, however mightily they tried, couldn't withstand the 72-win Bulls.
So maybe Stan's media musings about Miami Thrice being comparable to Michael Jordan's best team don't quite pass muster. Or maybe they do, depending on personal opinion.
Setting names aside, what about numbers?
It's impossible to tell with any certainty if a team from one era could triumph against a squad from an entirely different time. So, sorry Stan, but your predictions merit little more than a grain of salt (if not a whole article).
Brother Jeff brings up questions of wins, regarding quantity rather than quality. While it remains difficult, if not ridiculous, to even attempt to compare entirely different eras in NBA history, it is entirely possible to measure the great accomplishments of each time period in its own right and subsequently ponder whether future eras will ever see those feats duplicated, if not bested.
As Jeff Van Gundy has suggested the Heat very well might do.
Can the Heat Win 33 games in a Row?
It's interesting to note that while the man whose coaching resume includes stints with the Knicks and Rockets claimed the new-look Heat WOULD better the Bulls' 72-win season, he somewhat tempered expectations in saying Miami "have a legit shot" at winning more than 33 games in a row.
Big difference, if subtly worded. And such is indicative of the greater difficulty of one task over the other.
Not that either record is so easily breakable.
The likelihood of any team winning 33 games in a row, even with LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, is extremely slim.
The fact that the streak still stands, after nearly 40 years, as the longest winning streak in the history of North American professional team sports, is remarkable in and of itself.
It would seem foolish, even (and especially) for someone with the knowledge and reputation that Jeff Van Gundy possesses, to suggest, however seriously, that the Heat could very well match or surpass it.
Not that it can't be done.
Few teams, before or since, have possessed a blend of these elements comparable to the 1971-1972 Lakers, who managed to defeat 33 opponents in a row.
Though the streak didn't begin until after the retirement of Laker and NBA legend Elgin Baylor nine games into the season, there was no shortage of talent left on Los Angeles' roster to accomplish one of the more impressive team-based feats in all of sports.
With the likes of Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, and Gail Goodrich leading the way on the floor and Hall-of-Fame coach Bill Sharman orchestrating from the sidelines, the Lakers railed off win after win after win on the way to establishing the best single-season record (69-13), which wasn't bested until the 1995-1996 Bulls won 72 games.
Considering the superior level of skill and ability on that squad, perhaps luck didn't have quite so much to do with it. The Lakers' average margin of victory over that 33-game span?
Seventeen points.
Astounding as that may be, the number 17 plays a major part in what makes the streak even more impressive.
During the 1971-1972 season, the NBA consisted of 17 teams.
What does this have to do with anything?
Consider that the NBA today consists of 30 teams, most of which are mediocre. Though there were obviously teams with losing records in 1972 and teams with mediocre rosters, having 17 teams instead of 30 teams suggests that the talent pool was more concentrated.
Whereas teams with more than one superstar are a rarity in today's NBA, the NBA that the Lakers ran through in those days had 13 fewer teams across which to spread its crop of talent.
This forced the Lakers, who were certainly beneficiaries of this concentration of talent, to compete against other star-studded squads like the Milwaukee Bucks (with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson), the Boston Celtics (John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, and Jo Jo White), and the New York Knicks (Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, and Bill Bradley), among others.
On top of that, with 17 more-loaded teams and still an 82-game schedule to play, the Lakers at the time had to play each of these All-Star teams in more games than the Heat would have to face such current powerhouses as the Kobe-led Lakers, the "Big Four" in Boston, and Dwight Howard's Orlando Magic.
Now, all of this favors the Heat's chances of matching or improving on the Lakers' legendary mark. With a collection of talent unseen on a single NBA team since the 1970s and 1980s, Miami would seem poised to run through the multitudes of has-beens and have-nots languishing in the middle and lower rungs of today's league on the way to winning streaks that last months.
Add to that the second-longest winning streak in NBA history (22 games) was accomplished just two and a half years ago by the Houston Rockets. Those Rockets began the season with a purported "Big Three" in Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady, and Ron Artest. However, they watched Yao go down 12 games into it and T-Mac hobble throughout and STILL managed to put together nearly two months of flawless finishes.
So if the Rockets came close, why shouldn't the Heat be the ones to break one of pro sport's most untouchable records?
Well, aside from the prospect of playing back-to-backs, four games in five nights, cross-country travel, and potential for injury (especially for Wade, who's had some recent health woes)...
Consider, first, that the NBA, and particularly the Eastern Conference in which Miami plays, is as strong as it's been in a long time.
While the Heat could very well string together a load of wins here and there, Wade's Warriors are bound to run into (and struggle against) any one of their formidable conference foes (Boston, Orlando, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Atlanta), if not a contender or four from out West.
If that's not enough, lest anyone forget the burden of history. No team in North American professional sports has EVER won more games consecutively than the Purple and Gold in the early '70s. Not before. Not since.
Then again, if anyone can help lead the way, it's Pat Riley, who himself came off the bench for that Lakers team.
Can Miami Win More Than 72 Games in a Season?
Of course, if the Heat do, at some point, manage to reel off 33 or more wins in a row in a season, they'd have an excellent shot at challenging the record for wins in a single season set by Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls during the 1995-1996 campaign.
Assuming Jerry West and his Purple and Gold compatriots can rest easy, could the same be said for Michael Jordan and the accomplishments of his fellow Bulls?
In response to Stan's suggestion that the Heatles would conquer MJ's Bulls in a head-to-head match-up (see Part One), Miami fought valiantly, but couldn't run with the Bulls in the final tally.
That, however, doesn't necessarily preclude the residents of "Wade County" from racking up more than 72 wins in a single regular season.
The NBA will be a very different league in 2010-2011 than it was in 1995-1996.
Which, as mentioned above, might not be such a good thing for the Heat's chances at this particular record.
While Chicago had a few marginally-worthy competitors to dispatch in the mid-90's (i.e. Shaquille O'Neal's Magic, Gary Payton's Supersonics, Patrick Ewing's Knicks), Jordan's squad didn't have to contend with quite as deep a league, or even conference, as the Superfriends will have to if they are to win like no other NBA team has won.
The Heat will have plenty of games to play against Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. While that list might not have scared the Bulls of old, each of the aforementioned teams should prove to be a formidable foe throughout the season.
Should Miami weather the Eastern Conference storm with their chances nominally in tact, it will still have the Lakers, the Thunder, the Mavericks, the Trail Blazers, the Rockets, and the Jazz waiting in the West, waiting for their shots at the champions of free agency.
And don't forget about all the dregs of the league, either. While the Heat should be able to pencil in W's against the likes of Toronto, Cleveland, New Jersey, and New Orleans, there's always the chance for a slip-up.
The 72-win Bulls accrued four of their 10 losses against teams that finished the season with records of .500 or worse, including a loss to the 21-61 Raptors.
Because, when everyone is gunning for Number One (even if that Number One hasn't played a single game yet), that team, the Heat in this case, is bound to lose some heart-breakers to contenders here and slip on doormats there.
That's just the way the ball bounces sometimes. Hence, luck (whether it's winning 33 straight games or posting 72 victories in 82 attempts) can never be discounted.
A Place In History...Somewhere
So while there's seemingly no more than a slim chance, much less a guarantee, that the revamped Miami Heat will rewrite the record books, Dwyane Wade and his Team USA buddies will likely make some sort of history by the time their tenure together is done.
If they go on to win a championship or two (or three or four or five, as LeBron has suggested), they'll be remembered as winners, as superstars who came together because the jewelry at Robbins Bros. just wasn't cutting it anymore.
If, at the end of their deals, the new boys of South Beach come away with as much hardware as they had coming into it, they'll be remembered as one of the all-time biggest busts in NBA history.
Now, normally such a proposition would be a bit presumptuous. As much as owners, players, and fans might expect titles and the parades that come with them, winning a championship is never a sure thing until the final buzzer has sounded in June.
But when a team boasts three of the 10 best players in the league, as the Miami Heat currently do, everyone in the organization, in the city, and even the country should be thinking the same thing.
Championship or bust.
Of course, if the Heat don't manage to live up to the expectations of Tweedle Van Dee and Tweedle Van Dum, no one need be surprised.
