We, Heat Fans, Just Want Our Damn Respect
First, I would like to congratulate the Miami Heat organization on a marvelous season. The run made by this team should go down as one of the more remarkable displays of maximizing talent that this league has ever seen. It should. But it won’t.
The three reasons it won’t:
- LeBron won another title. That will always be the story.
- The NBA was robbed of two potential matchups they’ve been pushing because Miami eliminated those teams ahead of schedule (Giannis vs. LeBron and Lakers vs. Celtics).
- It’s the Heat.
These things all point to the same conclusion — despite the temporary praise, the Heat will return to its all too familiar comfort zone of being underrated. Not by players, who watched as the Heat embodied what most of them believe is the right way to play the game, but to the general public that only listen to the Nick Wrights, Mike Greenbergs and Colin Cowherds of the world.
All of that leads me to as a simple question. Is it too early for Heat fans to feel slighted?
The reason I’m asking is because it hasn’t been 24 hours, but casual basketball fans and the national media are already trying to bury one of the greatest accomplishments in the Miami Heat’s history. In an effort to cheapen this team’s accomplishments, several commentators have credited our wins to the shortcomings of other teams. Conversely, talking heads have also used Miami as a punchline to try and poke fun at the validity of this championship.
Skip Bayless discredits Miami, per the usual, by claiming Miami should have been swept.
It took two all-time Finals games by Jimmy Butler for the Heat to avoid what should've happened – a sweep.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 12, 2020
He isn’t alone. CBS NBA reporter Sam Quinn predicted that Miami won’t return to the Finals again during the Jimmy Butler era because the circumstances surrounding the run aren’t sustainable. He doesn’t take into account the roster flexibility Miami will have with the number of free agents we have coming off the books or the amount of cap space the Heat will have to be major players in the 2021 market.
I don't think the Heat will make it back to the Finals during Jimmy Butler's contract.
I doubt they're getting Giannis. I don't think they're better than the Celtics or Bucks next year, or the playoff Nets. A lot of things went right for them that I don't view as sustainable.
— Samuel H. Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) October 12, 2020
In other tweets, he suggests Milwaukee and Dallas are more attractive free agent destinations because the Luka Doncic/Kristaps Porzingas duo is better than Bam and an aging Jimmy Butler.
Milwaukee is the front-runner, and Dallas is the non-Bucks front-runner imo. I would much rather play with Luka and KP than Bam and aging Jimmy. Giannis needs shooting around him. Heat have it, but it's too concentrated in a few guys.
— Samuel H. Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) October 12, 2020
And then we have ESPN and their way too early Power Rankings where they have Miami listed 9th. 9th?!?!? There are some things in the world that cannot be explained. The placebo effect, Alf954’s uncontrollable hatred for Tony Brother’s eyebrows, Hassan Whiteside and this shit. How are the NBA’s first runner up behind two teams they beat (Milwaukee and Boston), a fully healthy team that didn’t push the Lakers nearly as hard as Miami with injuries (Denver), one of the biggest super team disappointments in recent memory (Clippers), a team that lost in the first round (Dallas), a non-playoff team (Golden State) and THE FUCKING 76ers.
I…I have no words
ESPN used to be good at covering basketball. What happened???#HeatTwitter pic.twitter.com/0iWZcnQrdf
— Bam Adobobayo (@MannyMontana305) October 12, 2020
Whatever, some things will never change. But some things do, like the trajectory of this franchise moving forward.
Royal Shepherd (@RoyalAShepherd) has written for several major newspapers, including the Tallahassee Democrat and the Augusta Chronicle, and now contributes to Five Reasons Sports.
Smh. We just want our respect.