D'Alessandro: In Miami, the sun is shining for the Heat
Sunday, May 16, 2004
BY DAVE D'ALESSANDRO
Star-Ledger Staff
Sometimes the hardest thing to figure out about this game is what resonates with fans, particularly the gripped-by-leisure denizens of South Florida. As with any market, winning helps. Then again, Miami had always won, but the audience remained apathetic.
Style is another factor. But while the Mourning-Hardaway teams had superb talent, the games those teams played too often resembled a rugby scrum, and not even Pat Riley could sell it as a compelling product.
So now along comes this nice little team that has lit up the Southeastern corner of the NBA map, and if you saw this coming you have a clairvoyance that makes us question why you're reading a sports page rather than pondering the wonders of the universe.
It has all happened so fast, people outside of Dade County have yet to gain a full appreciation of Stan Van Gundy's little team that could. This Heat, you may recall, was 11 games south of .500 in March but still vaulted to the fourth seed in the East. One round later, they're in the Elite Eight, in a dogfight with Indiana, and they almost seem destined to push the Pacers to the limit.
Eric Reid, the team's broadcast voice since its inception, put it best: "In some ways this is the most joyful time in the history of the franchise," he said. "They're winning without the burden of expectations, and they're not playing the Knicks."
They've won 18 consecutive games at AmericanAirlines Arena, including six in this postseason. In the past, this building was known only for having empty scarlet seats and cheesy curtains covering the mezzanine. Now, the place rocks. And it could no longer be dismissed as just another home-court advantage.
"They're riding a wave of energy right now," Indy coach Rick Carlisle said, "that is second to none that maybe I've ever seen."
Since March began, it seems, the town has embraced the young team Riley assembled tighter than any other that came before. Lamar Odom has become an All-Star-caliber player, playing with a consistency and passion he never showed in L.A. Dwyane Wade is a human rocket, and the rarest of rookies, the kind who can dominate games from the backcourt. Caron Butler is a tough kid who will remain a building block for years as long as knee injuries don't become routine. Our fave is Rafer Alston, the slick and fearless New York gunslinger who with one shot -- a game-winning 3-pointer in overtime against Dallas back in March -- may have restored NBA basketball in South Florida permanently.
Then there are the veteran leaders, Brian Grant and Eddie Jones, who have cap-clogging contracts but have demonstrated that they are winners just by allowing the Odom-Wade-Butler trio -- which averages 23 years of age -- to hog the spotlight.
And they're all just getting started. This team might be just one big body away from taking a giant step forward, and that body could be had on the free-agent market.
"I don't think it's just that if you have the money, the players will come," says Donnie Walsh, the Pacers CEO. "They need to know it's a good situation. Now, obviously, if you're winning, that makes it a good situation. With Miami, they play hard. They're committed to winning. They don't back up. I love the way they play. I think they're going to be a great team. They're obviously at a point right now that nobody expected them to be, and maybe they should have, because they've got the talent."
"I think you start to see the foundation of some players who look like they can be a part of something," Heat GM Randy Pfund said. "And you have a young coach who had a good year, and all the other stuff about Miami that's always been there. Yeah, there's some truth to us becoming more attractive."
On Pfund's shopping list this summer: size. Free agents Mark Blount of Boston, Erick Dampier of Golden State and Etan Thomas of Washington are probably the targets, in that rough order. Any one of them would fill the need for more toughness on the front line. Miami plays an exciting, up-tempo game, and on most nights it overcomes their size deficiency with a very aggressive defensive mind-set. What it needs is a shot-blocker and an earth-mover.
The question is whether they can add such a piece with their $5 million exception. Pfund thinks so. Giving free agents a vision of a franchise's future -- which in Miami's case seems limitless -- is almost as attractive as money.
"I don't see why someone wouldn't want to come and live in Miami for six months," Odom said. "I don't see how you could lose."
Easy for him to say. The Heat haven't lost down there since February.
