According to ESPN, Alonzo Mourning has decided to stay with the Miami Heat 1 more year before retiring. It ended about 3 months of what can only be described as sweat inducing suspense for Heat fans. Besides the blistering temperatures outside, fans, players and the team were nervously awaiting a decision from Zo. The indecision itself had become a story in the South Florida sports market. But, at last we have the news! Mourning will play for 1 more year and then retire… probably.

Continue reading →

The Miami Heat finished their Pepsi Summer League schedule today and everything went just as was expected; boring. Don’t get me wrong; these games are valuable for the younger players and they are great ways for coaches to evaluate talent. But that does not make them any less boring. Even out of the 2 Summer Leagues that were playing, the Heat played in the more boring one… Oh well. The games are over and it is now time to analyze. Hooray! Let’s recap all the action!

Continue reading →

If you were to ask that question to Pat Riley, he would reply with a resounding “yes!” It seems that wherever Riley goes, wily old veterans follow. And no matter what their age, he will take the proven tested veteran over the young phenom any day of the week. But as any wine connoisseur knows, wine does not always get better with age. At a certain point, the wine turns into vinegar. This is exactly what happened to the Miami Heat this past season. The team waited until the end of the season to uncork the bottle, only to find that many of the players had gotten sour and undrinkable.

Continue reading →

Just in case you’ve forgotten, the Miami Heat did play in the playoffs this season. Against the Chicago Bulls? First round? Four game sweep? No, not coming to you? Well they did, so just deal with it. Now, I’m not saying with a healthy Wade we could have won the whole shibang, but at the very least we could have taken care of the scrappy (see flopping, see sissy, see Dallas) Bulls. Game 1, in Chicago, final 96-91 Bulls. Wade’s night, 21 pt, 3 ast, 2 ribs. Not exactly your classic Dwayne Wade playoff night (see 30+ pts averaged in last year’s finals). More telling than that though was the fact that he dunked only once (to my knowledge) in that game (though my memory is forcibly fuzzy on the whole subject). Three similar games followed, but without defense or the benefit of 20 points from Antoine Walker. The closest, game three, didn’t even have that close of a final score (104-96) due in part (see whole) to the fact that Miami was outscored 32-20 in the final period, something that’s usually the other way around with a healthy Wade on your side. So, no we probably would not have been able to beat the Spurs, but Chicago was well within our ability.
Continue reading →

You know, I spent 4 long years going to college in Switzerland. That is also the number of years I have gone without Miami Heat basketball. Sure, I caught the tail end of the playoffs last year, but other than that, I have had nothing. I could only wake up the next morning and check out whether the team won or not. Finally, this year comes around and I am back in the US and what do I get?! A lackluster, uninterested team that will be remembered for bookend losses to the Bulls; our season started and ended at the American Airlines Arena with a shameful loss to those young kids from Chicago.

Continue reading →