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.
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Stan Van Gundy was recently “traded” to the Orlando Magic, thus ending his tenure with the Miami Heat. He only coached one full season for the Heat (2003-2004), but that was a memorable one. Dwayne Wade was a rookie, we had a dynamic Lamar Odom, and a fast paced, high octane offense. Indeed, it is a world apart from the team’s current make-up. It was an exciting year with an amazing playoff run in which the Heat nearly advanced to the Conference Finals. And for all of that, we owe Stan a tremendous thank you.

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