Heat to Dion Waiters: Time to Shape Up or….
It was the open secret of the Miami Heat season.
The proverbial elephant in the room.
Dion Weighte- (er, Waiters) was overweight.
And the Heat, behind the scenes, weren’t happy about it.
Very not happy about it.
Heat fans, on the other hand, were equal parts amused and annoyed, until Waiters went on a three-point shooting spree to salvage his season somewhat.
I’m getting tired of the Dion Waiters fat jokes. He’s been beefing up for a year to carry the 2018-2019 Heat to the ECF. Respect the grind.
— #Washed Tone (@ToneOzMia) June 30, 2018
This has been going on forever, actually.
Look at the date on this one:
Heat's Dion Waiters to social-media skeptics: I'm not fat. https://t.co/YW9CT9fCGh
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) December 19, 2017
Dion Waiters, by the way, said the photos of him looking fat in Mexico were because he was wearing double sweaters. Says his body fat percentage is 6 percent. I’ll have more later. #Heat
— Manny Navarro (@Manny_Navarro) December 19, 2017
We all know how Pat Riley feels about conditioning. Miami Heat shape. World class shape. He forced Tim Hardaway to meet a certain weight, even after Hardaway was a multi-time All-Star. He briefly banished Antoine Walker and James Posey after the 2006 championship, after Walker promised to keep drinking all offseason and seemed to diligently fulfill his promise. He has nearly killed men in practice; just ask them.
So it was a matter of time before the team snapped. The Heat tried to put on a good face about this, as they typically do, when there’s something they’d like to not make a public issue — particularly when they’re paying a player $52 million guaranteed over four years to overeat and underperform.
For instance…
Spoelstra said Dion Waiters "recently" passed his conditioning test.
“Very close," Spoelstra said when asked if Waiters is back to where he was a few years ago. "In terms of his weight and body fat. He’s passed virtually everything up to this point."
— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) December 22, 2018
Recently, roughly two weeks ago, Spoelstra said that Waiters was getting into better condition and that’s why he was playing better. There wasn’t much of the season left.
It is not like Spoelstra to call players out publicly. That’s a Riley thing. That’s what made Friday’s Spoelstra press conference so remarkable. He basically spoke for both of them, with more pointed words for Waiters than anyone else on the roster. Actually, Waiters was the only player targeted with even a tinge of negativity, as Spoelstra waxed poetic about Dwyane Wade, gushed over the Heat’s kids (especially the clearly beloved Bam Adebayo) and even said he believed in Hassan Whiteside.
Waiters?
Well.
Here are some tweets.
Erik Spoelstra mentions how Dion Waiters can help down the stretch, after "getting healthy, getting to the right weight and body fat."
— Five Reasons Sports Network (@5ReasonsSports) April 12, 2019
And this…
Erik Spoelstra on Dion Waiters:
"I have not forgotten the player he was 2 years ago. It's time to get back to that player."
— Five Reasons Sports Network (@5ReasonsSports) April 12, 2019
And this was the money quote…
Erik Spoelstra's quote of the day:
"He knows, I know, Pat knows. He simply has to get there. That's it. This is a really important summer for Dion Waiters. He's healthy now. He HAS to work. That's it."
— Five Reasons Sports Network (@5ReasonsSports) April 12, 2019
Just in case no one understood…..
That was a clear message sent to Dion Waiters.
Erik Spoelstra kept saying "Pat and I are on the same page on this."
Riley will call out guys publicly.
Spoelstra doesn't do that often.
— Five Reasons Sports Network (@5ReasonsSports) April 12, 2019
“Pat and I are on the same page on this.”
That’s a message they meant to deliver. Together.
This time, there’s no Good Cop.
Just Bad Cop and Worse Cop.
Expect Riley, if he ever speaks to the assembled media again — we’re expecting next week — to deliver it even more sternly. They have two years left on Waiters’ contract and he has been difficult if not impossible to deal. They need to try to make something work.
So it will be interesting to see what happens if he can’t make weight.
