NBA Playoffs 2011: Miami Heat One Ping Pong Ball Away from Best Team Ever
Life truly is a game of inches and seconds.
Sometimes the future of an entire franchise and millions of fans can be totally predicated by something as simplistic as a bouncing ping pong ball.
As we brace ourselves for the Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls, there is one thing that needs to be reexamined. That, of course, is the 2008 NBA Draft.
Entering the draft lottery, Miami held the best odds of landing the first overall pick. Never in franchise history had Miami held the first selection, and after enduring a nightmare year in which Dwyane Wade and Alonzo Mourning had season ending surgeries while Shaquille O'Neal was traded to Phoenix, it seemed like a much needed break.
Miami finished dead last and merited the first choice in the draft. But alas, the NBA doesn't select their draft order like the NFL and instead chooses to do a weighted lottery to determine where a team will be slotted to pick.
This is yet another glaring example of how the NBA has the means to manipulate their league and the fortune of teams.
Most diehard or conspiracy minded basketball fans truly believe the lottery is a fake and that it was invented just so Patrick Ewing would land in New York and help revitalize a major market franchise.
Everyone knew Miami wanted Rose and many had predicted he was destined to end up with the Heat.
Instead, the NBA announced on that fateful Spring evening in 2008 that Chicago had won the top overall selection, while Miami would have to settle for the second overall pick.
Now allow me to take you on a fantastic voyage into the world of make believe.
A place where one can pretend that all is fair and just. A place where Miami ended with the top overall selection as they rightfully should have.
Can you see it folks? Can you see the spectacle that would have taken the court 98 times to dazzle our eyes and leave us breathless?
Had the Heat managed to land the first pick, they would have selected Derrick Rose to pair up with Dwyane Wade in the back court.
That alone is the stuff that dreams are made of, but then add to it the results of last Summer's free agency.
Just imagine.
Pat Riley would have emptied the entire cupboard with the exception of Wade and Rose. Then you add LeBron James and Chris Bosh into the equation.
Can you say checkmate for a decade!!?
Sure, Rose wouldn't have been named an MVP so soon and his individual accolades would have taken a back seat, but isn't the greatest glory being champion? If so Derrick would have fit in perfectly.
It would have worked under the cap and instead of completely wasting a pick on Michael Beasley, the Heat would have arguably the single greatest starting line up in NBA history.
Granted Rose, James and Wade all need the ball in their hands to best showcase their talents, but can you imagine that group in transition or on a fast break? That would be a scary sight.
Heck, as a Heat fan it would have been great to have more foresight and dropped down a pick to select Russell Westbrook.
Whatever the case, the cards fell as they did and instead of joining forces we now have three of the league's best players primed for an epic showdown. Still it's hard not to dream about what could have been if that little bouncing ball fell a different way.
