Miami Heat's Big 3 Experiment Gone Wrong: Dinner for Schmucks
I woke up early this morning and fired up my laptop to check out ESPN.com to see if anything new had occurred overnight.
Sure enough, there it was, "Sources say Miami Heat players are agitated with coach Erik Spoelstra." I was wondering if this was a situation like the one the Minnesota Vikings just went through.
The more I read the article, the more I saw similarities with articles leading up to the Vikings' firing Brad Childress.
Players throw a coach under the bus because they have such big egos and won't blame themselves for their half-hearted efforts on the field or court. It is the Miami Vikings led by LeBron Favre.
As we all know, LeBron James has thrown people under the bus before in Cleveland. He threw ex-Cavaliers coach Mike Brown under the bus by quitting on him during the playoffs last year. He embarrassed the people of Cleveland with his "Decision."
And here we are again, this time with Coach Spoelstra. And, apparently, it is not just LeBron, but most of the players are throwing him under the bus as well.
Chris Bosh said it best about how Coach Spoelstra is handling the situation, "Coach knows he has to meet us halfway. He wants to work, we want to chill, but we are going to have to work to get everything down, to get our timing down, and to get our chemistry down."
How do you plan on working hard for your coach when you want to chill? You can't, Chris Bosh. If you want to chill, you and LeBron should be executives in some big business so you can chill and let your assistants do the dirty work.
Coach Spoelstra is young and wants to win. He is supposed to be Pat Riley's project and successor. Riley has taken this kid under his wing and said this is the coach of the future.
If the great Riley thinks that, why don't the players think that as well? The main complaint is that he has gotten in players' faces, telling them to grow up and play with the same seriousness that Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Wilt Chamberlain all had.
A coach can only motivate someone who is willing to be motivated. A coach can only coach someone who is willing to be coached. Dwyane Wade is willing to be coached, but he is a nice guy and doesn't want to cause any more drama than the Heat already have. Bosh has never been very vocal and has yet to show he has accepted a role behind Wade and James.
And that leaves "King" James to deal with. He has always been a big kid on and off the court. He has never shown the seriousness for the game needed to win a championship. He would rather be goofing around before tip-off, taking pretend pictures in funny poses, than spending that extra effort on the court willing his team to victory.
So what if Coach is not letting you be yourself, so what if you cannot have fun at practice, so what if Coach yelled at you, so what if he is not motivating you—your motivation is that big fat check the owner signs for you every year, you lazy bum.
But Kyle, LeBron and Bosh took pay cuts. Well, here is something that counteracts them "taking less money."
In the state of Florida, you do not pay state taxes, so that makes up the difference.
The people of Miami thought they would be seeing amazing plays, alley-oops, etc., but none of that has happened yet. Miami is starting to panic to the point of telling the fans how to properly cheer for the team.
We are only one-fifth of the way through the season, and Heat fans are about as scared for their team losing as the Los Angeles Clippers are scared of drafting another No. 1 pick and having him blow out his knee.
The Heat put on a big display the day after LeBron decided to "take his talents to South Beach." Too bad those talents have not left Cleveland. This is a bunch of guys who thought they were going to be the greatest "Big Three" since Kevin "The Big Ticket" Garnett, Ray "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Allen and Paul "The Truth" Pierce.
If I remember correctly, LeBron said they would win not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not even seven championships. He must have been talking about their seed in the Eastern Conference.
The difference between these "Three Schmucks" and Boston's "Big Three" is Boston's "Big Three" had already been playing for a longer time in the NBA than LBJ, Wade and Bosh.
Allen complements Pierce because Pierce can drive and take the shot because of the spacing from Allen, or Pierce can hand it off to Allen for a jumper off the drive. Garnett complements both of them because he REBOUNDS and has a back-to-the-basket game that allows him to hit Allen off screens of Pierce driving down the lane.
LBJ and Wade both need the ball in their hands to make their offense click, along with Bosh, who tries using his quickness one-on-one against slower big men. There is no fluidity to their game, unlike Boston's.
Boston is as smooth as a Ray Allen jumper; Miami is as smooth as a Shaq free throw.
No matter who is coaching this team, the pieces are not there for them to win a championship, at least not this year. If they can find a point guard and a decent center, then we might not be having this conversation, but we are. Coach Spoelstra took pretty much Wade to the playoffs last year since Wade did not have much help.
All he wants to do is win, but with the team he has now, it will be hard to do, no matter how great each individual is.
Let's face it: Michael Jordan was a superstar, Scottie Pippen was a Hall of Fame role player, Steve Kerr was deadly from outside, Dennis Rodman and Horace Grant rebounded the ball, Toni Kukoc was one of the best European players to play the game. Everyone knew his role. People complained that Jordan was too hard on them, but what did that get them? Six championship rings and two three-peats.
Sometimes you have to sacrifice some things to do great things. Obviously LBJ, D-Wade and Bosh are not ready to do that.
