Speaker 1: You know, speaking of that time, you know something that
Speaker 1: was really a touch of my heart and with Miami,
Speaker 1: you donasas them u D. He came to my video shoot,
Speaker 1: one of my first videos called Born and Raised in
Speaker 1: the County of Dad and to this day he walks
Speaker 1: out to it all the.
Speaker 2: Time he was in the video. So it's just love.
Speaker 2: And you know, you just brought the championship. You know,
Speaker 2: those days were like so maya mental. It was so
Speaker 2: big for the city.
Speaker 1: We're still proud and nobody could take that away from
Speaker 1: us because it's like it's it's in stone and history.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: That time Kaled was speaking of was actually four years
Speaker 3: before Lebron and Boss joined Miami. When The Heat won
Speaker 3: its first title in two thousand and six, it was
Speaker 3: Miami establishing itself as one of the premier franchises, pairing
Speaker 3: championship success with the natural draws of the Miami lifestyle.
Speaker 3: It was that title that even allowed Miami to be
Speaker 3: one of the finalists to land Lebron in free agency.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to four years of Heat. I'm your host
Speaker 3: Israel Gutierrez and this is episode five.
Speaker 4: The Crown.
Speaker 3: In twenty twelve, that winning experience was still fresh in
Speaker 3: the memories of head coach Eric Spolstra and the two
Speaker 3: players remaining from that six championship, Dwayne Wade and Eudonnas Haslam.
Speaker 3: Combined that with the pain still felt by all the
Speaker 3: players returning off the finals disappointment against Dallas, and the
Speaker 3: Heat checked all the necessary boxes when it came to
Speaker 3: experience and motivation. Their opponents in the twenty twelve finals,
Speaker 3: The Oklahoma City Thunder couldn't say the same. They were
Speaker 3: a young team led by Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and
Speaker 3: James Harden, all of whom were twenty three or younger
Speaker 3: and had won just one playoff series in their young
Speaker 3: careers prior to the twenty twelve playoffs. They were led
Speaker 3: by a coach in Scott Brooks, who was just in
Speaker 3: his fourth year at the position.
Speaker 4: It was all a.
Speaker 3: Stark contrast to what the Heat faced in the veteran
Speaker 3: Celtics in the conference finals and their head coach, Doc Rivers,
Speaker 3: who'd already won a title as a coach in two
Speaker 3: thousand and eight. Mario Chalmers was in his fourth year
Speaker 3: in the league in twenty twelve and had started all
Speaker 3: sixty four games he played that regular season. He learned
Speaker 3: from his veteran teammates that series just how much experience
Speaker 3: in these situations actually.
Speaker 4: Helps a team.
Speaker 3: It's not just something analysts say when they're trying to
Speaker 3: predict the outcome of a series. Experience actually matters. Here's Chalmers, like.
Speaker 5: You said, the said before that we played Boston older team,
Speaker 5: the EXQ to a T. They got Doc Rivers, who
Speaker 5: has some of the greatest ato players ever. So you
Speaker 5: know with them, you got to focus on all of
Speaker 5: the little things, and the little things is going to
Speaker 5: you do the little things right, it's going to help you.
Speaker 5: With us going into the OKC series, we knew that
Speaker 5: there was a young team. We knew they had two
Speaker 5: three stars James Harmer was a star at that time,
Speaker 5: and we knew that they was young. And even though
Speaker 5: I'm young, I'm hearing these old guys, the older guys,
Speaker 5: the Shane Battier's and the d Ways and Lebrons talk
Speaker 5: about like they don't have the experience that we had.
Speaker 5: And I remember in that series Shane Baddi a kme
Speaker 5: to and he was like he's like this, Seri's gonna
Speaker 5: be big for both of us. I'm like, why he said,
Speaker 5: cause were gonna have the two hardest matchups, Like, what
Speaker 5: do you mean? He's like, You're gonna have Westbrook and
Speaker 5: most of the time I have KD. He said, the
Speaker 5: biggest thing that we have to do is get them
Speaker 5: to not work with each other.
Speaker 6: And I was like, how do you do that?
Speaker 7: He was like, every time Westbrook get the ball, just
Speaker 7: telling them to.
Speaker 4: Go Westbrook season open.
Speaker 8: That gets to the rabbit LA.
Speaker 9: So then oh, want to Freddy play from Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 5: So I'm sitting there going Westbrook like, oh you got it,
Speaker 5: go go go. And so Westbrook did good forty three
Speaker 5: and one of those games and went crazy, but we
Speaker 5: still won because that was.
Speaker 7: Our game plan after let both of them get off
Speaker 7: in the same game.
Speaker 4: So it was that playground style. I know, that's your shot,
Speaker 4: you got that, that's you and it worked.
Speaker 2: It worked.
Speaker 5: I mean it made me look bad some games because
Speaker 5: Wes west did go on. He didn't miss any shots,
Speaker 5: but it definitely worked to the game plan.
Speaker 3: What's wild about the idea of literally asking Russell Westbrook
Speaker 3: to shoot in order to disrupt the thunders chemistry is
Speaker 3: the public narrative around the pair was exactly that they
Speaker 3: don't work well together and therefore couldn't win at the
Speaker 3: highest level. Surely, reaching the finals together was an indication
Speaker 3: that it was all a false narrative, and that Durant
Speaker 3: and Westbrook in particular are too talented to fail. Regardless
Speaker 3: of the awkward chemistry.
Speaker 4: Westbrook split slap pad, he puts it out of file.
Speaker 3: The Heat strategy was a difficult concept to remain faithful
Speaker 3: in once the Heat lost the finals opener in Oklahoma
Speaker 3: City one oh five ninety four behind thirty six points
Speaker 3: from Durant and twenty seven eleven and eight from Westbrook.
Speaker 3: Only one other player, Serge Ibaka, even scored in double
Speaker 3: figures for the Thunder in Game one, and yet it
Speaker 3: was a comfortable win.
Speaker 10: Weg right, Durant splicing left pouts past Low, Collinson high
Speaker 10: stepped away for fuss six slams the Thunder in a
Speaker 10: Dota Royal, I'll come from thirteen back to defeat, say Heat,
Speaker 10: He'll take the one game to the lead.
Speaker 3: Still, there was something about the initial game experience that
Speaker 3: had the Heat believing the title was theirs. The last
Speaker 3: time they'd lost a game Game five against the Celtics
Speaker 3: and the conference finals. It felt as if the world
Speaker 3: was about to collapse on them. After this loss, the
Speaker 3: championships somehow felt closer than ever before. Shane Battier chose
Speaker 3: the Heat that offseason to put an NBA championship on
Speaker 3: his resume to match his college and high school titles.
Speaker 3: He had a strong feeling he'd finally get it, despite
Speaker 3: being down in the series one game to none. He
Speaker 3: called this group a team of destiny. But there were
Speaker 3: more tangible reasons for his belief as well, and it
Speaker 3: had to do with who's Scott Brooks decided to put
Speaker 3: on the court each night to match up with the
Speaker 3: Heats now smaller lineup.
Speaker 4: Here's Battier.
Speaker 6: We played really well, game won, and so we left
Speaker 6: that game, We're like, oh, we're winning Game two. And
Speaker 6: we came out and just you know, laid the hammer
Speaker 6: on him, you know, and I think the guy who
Speaker 6: I think is Kendrick Perkins, that was Scott Brooks, like
Speaker 6: would refuse to take Kendrick Perkins out and do the
Speaker 6: sensible thing of playing KD at the four and matching
Speaker 6: up with our small ball, But instead, like they said,
Speaker 6: this is how we play we're going to play backham
Speaker 6: Perkins together, and so I got a free pass on defense.
Speaker 6: I didn't have to guard anybody because Perk got one
Speaker 6: one post up per game and that was it. And
Speaker 6: then he didn't chase me out in three point line.
Speaker 6: And so I shot like fifty percent from the from
Speaker 6: the three in the in the finals, and we were
Speaker 6: able to get our guys downhill with space, and it
Speaker 6: was it was the perfect It was the perfect storm.
Speaker 6: And so I got to look at that series. I'm like,
Speaker 6: I don't know why they wouldn't go small play Kad
Speaker 6: on me and totally match up. And so once we
Speaker 6: got that game too and we won, We're like, oh yeah,
Speaker 6: we're we're winning this. We're winning this.
Speaker 3: The Heat did win Game two in Oklahoma City, despite
Speaker 3: playing smaller than the thunder Bosh pulled in fifteen rebounds,
Speaker 3: James scored thirty two, and Battier hit five of seven
Speaker 3: threes on his way to seventeen points.
Speaker 4: The drive gets to the n kicks it up, Battier's open.
Speaker 6: That's a three.
Speaker 3: Battier, by the way, short changed himself with those shooting numbers.
Speaker 3: He actually shot fifty eight percent from three in those
Speaker 3: twenty twelve Finals.
Speaker 11: So hello short Ron, James kicks it up top batty,
Speaker 11: He left wide open downs another.
Speaker 3: By the time Game four arrived, with the Heat up
Speaker 3: two games to one, with two more games to be
Speaker 3: played in Miami, there wasn't much drama remaining about the
Speaker 3: Only question marks left were first, just how much scoring
Speaker 3: could the Heat with stand from Westbrook and still win?
Speaker 3: And second would Lebron throw a wrench in the operation
Speaker 3: by suffering from some untimely muscle cramps. James had experienced
Speaker 3: severe cramping in games before, dating all the way back
Speaker 3: to his high school days, when he even went through
Speaker 3: a series of medical tests because of it. The answer
Speaker 3: to the first question was apparently foury three points, which
Speaker 3: is what Westbrook scored in Game four, and the Heat
Speaker 3: won by just six points. The answer to the second
Speaker 3: was yes, Lebron would make matters more complicated due to cramps.
Speaker 3: He exited Game four with five minutes fifteen seconds remaining
Speaker 3: with severe leg cramps, only to return one minute later.
Speaker 3: He hit one three pointer and missed another before leaving
Speaker 3: the game again for good with fifty five seconds left
Speaker 3: and the Heat up just three.
Speaker 11: Lebron is cramping up me he is down on the deck.
Speaker 6: The timing could not be any worse.
Speaker 3: But on the very next possession the game four, Hero
Speaker 3: Chalmers drove for a layup to put Miami up four
Speaker 3: with forty four seconds left. Then he hit three or
Speaker 3: four free throws in the final seconds to seal the
Speaker 3: win on the driving side to.
Speaker 8: The remp lay up and got it carry o Jummers
Speaker 8: on the running lay up, Miami now by five and
Speaker 8: the Miami he win the game four one oh four
Speaker 8: ninety eight and lead three games, the one in the
Speaker 8: NBA Finals.
Speaker 3: Chalmers scored twenty five points, matching his playoff career high,
Speaker 3: and his motivation for the career highlight of a game
Speaker 3: was classic Chalmers. Kevin Durant was assigned to defend Chalmers
Speaker 3: this game. Chalmers saw that as an insult.
Speaker 7: I had two bad games before it.
Speaker 5: Well, not two bad games, but I didn't have the
Speaker 5: games I expected to have come into the finals. So
Speaker 5: I was a little down on myself. So I remember
Speaker 5: going to that shoot around. Coach Bo was on me.
Speaker 5: Everybody was on me, like real, get your head up,
Speaker 5: come on real, we need you. Tonight, gonna be all night, tonight,
Speaker 5: gonna be all night, Like I heard that throughout the
Speaker 5: whole shoot around, So I'm kind of like, all right,
Speaker 5: are y'all gassing me up to tell me that y'all
Speaker 5: want me?
Speaker 7: Like that's all I need. You tell me that you
Speaker 7: need something from me. I'm ready to go.
Speaker 5: So now I remember after that, I took my nap
Speaker 5: and d Wade had text me right before the game
Speaker 5: or right before I head to the gym, and He's like, Yo,
Speaker 5: be ready to night.
Speaker 7: I feel like it's gonna be a big one for you.
Speaker 5: I was like, okay, So already in my mind, I'm
Speaker 5: thinking like, okay, something specially is gonna happen tonight. Then
Speaker 5: when I seen that, it was like, why is KD
Speaker 5: guard me? I'm not one of the stars on the team,
Speaker 5: Like this is the finals, Like you're supposed to be
Speaker 5: guarding Braun or d Wade, Like this is a matchup
Speaker 5: for y'all. So by you guard me means that you're
Speaker 5: trying to rest and save all your stuff for offense.
Speaker 5: I'm not the type of player where I can't score.
Speaker 5: I can't go get a bucket. I just don't because
Speaker 5: I got three Hall of favors that do a little
Speaker 5: bit better than me. So by that it's like, okay,
Speaker 5: now that they see that your guarding me, they're running
Speaker 5: a little bit more plays for me, for me to
Speaker 5: be active and to get you active on defense so
Speaker 5: you can't rest.
Speaker 7: And I'm actually hitting my shots. So now I'm in
Speaker 7: the rhythm.
Speaker 5: Now I feel like I can go, and I keep going,
Speaker 5: and my teammates keep feeding me, they keep finding me.
Speaker 7: I'm getting a little broken, played a little.
Speaker 5: Easy way ups, open threes, and it was just like
Speaker 5: everything was just going my way that game, and I
Speaker 5: felt good. I felt great about it, and just one
Speaker 5: of them games, like you said, I always have a
Speaker 5: big game in the playoffs, like I always want to
Speaker 5: leave my mark and whatever championship, whatever series on Man.
Speaker 7: Just so you could say we can rely on.
Speaker 3: Mike in game five, it would be another reliable piece,
Speaker 3: Mike Miller who helped shoot his good buddy Lebron into
Speaker 3: a championship celebration. Miller hit seven of eight three pointers
Speaker 3: on his way to twenty three points in twenty three
Speaker 3: minutes off the bench.
Speaker 12: Miller for three bag Mike Miller from Downtown. Then the
Speaker 12: Heat lead by fifteen.
Speaker 13: Manama shot block wait the Miller another three got another one.
Speaker 11: Oh my goodness, you are watching perfection, not to seventh.
Speaker 3: Tray Miller was the player Eudonnis Haslam says connected the
Speaker 3: dots with that Heat team, getting along with each individual,
Speaker 3: so his performance in that championship clincher made for an
Speaker 3: even more joyful experience. But all eyes were on Lebron
Speaker 3: James as he was about to win his first championship
Speaker 3: and his first Finals MVP Trophy. He and the remaining
Speaker 3: starters were taken out of the game with three minutes
Speaker 3: and one second left in the season and a twenty
Speaker 3: two point lead.
Speaker 11: Ron James with a triple double. Most important game in
Speaker 11: his career.
Speaker 7: Lebron James will come out of the game to.
Speaker 4: The roar of the crowd.
Speaker 3: Wade, with a championship already in hand, made sure he
Speaker 3: watched his good friend Lebron's reaction to winning his first.
Speaker 14: He talked about that moment so many times, when the
Speaker 14: clock is winding down and you know you got the
Speaker 14: game in hand and it's about to be a celebration,
Speaker 14: And I turned around and looked at him, and I
Speaker 14: just seen the smile on his face.
Speaker 6: He look like he look key at that moment.
Speaker 3: Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press would keep his eyes
Speaker 3: on James the rest of the way.
Speaker 15: There's that image of him, you know, jumping up and
Speaker 15: down on the sideline and swinging his arms with The
Speaker 15: very first thing he did when he knew supposed taking
Speaker 15: him out of the game was he went over to
Speaker 15: Chris Bosh and he just bowed his head into Chris's chest.
Speaker 15: It was like relief, it was joy, it was thank you.
Speaker 15: Like he doesn't always show a super ton of emotion,
Speaker 15: but it was so telling to me that the first
Speaker 15: person he went to go almost pay tribute to in
Speaker 15: a way was Chris.
Speaker 2: That was cool.
Speaker 15: And then the clock go zero and he doesn't storm
Speaker 15: the floor. They're not holding each other back, they're not
Speaker 15: doing any of that stuff that you would typically see
Speaker 15: when the clock go zero for a championship.
Speaker 11: Let the coronation begin. Lebron James has helped Brown Miami
Speaker 11: a champion of the basketball world. There'll be another barade
Speaker 11: down beautiful Ben's game. Follah bah.
Speaker 15: He's got the towel up, and he goes down and
Speaker 15: he embraces Kevin Durant and he wraps Kevin Durant up
Speaker 15: and starts whispering in his ear about how your.
Speaker 2: Time is coming.
Speaker 15: It was very cool in the moment that he recognized
Speaker 15: there was more to the moment just you.
Speaker 7: But yes, the weight.
Speaker 15: Had been lifted and then he became lebron three point
Speaker 15: oho or four point oh, whatever he became at that
Speaker 15: point because on top of being the baddest man in
Speaker 15: the world, now he's a champion on top of it.
Speaker 4: All right, that's why we trained each other twos ago.
Speaker 4: Who's gonna be champions?
Speaker 2: Man, It's been a long problem.
Speaker 16: We're today.
Speaker 3: James recovered from his lowest professional moment, failing against the
Speaker 3: Mavericks on the biggest stage in basketball, to raise two
Speaker 3: gold trophies one year later, on a day he called
Speaker 3: the best of his life.
Speaker 6: We did Jews last year's experience.
Speaker 17: You know, you know, the heartbreak lost in the finals
Speaker 17: and you know, me not playing to my abilities and
Speaker 17: me not making enough players to help our team win
Speaker 17: that series. You know, it was the at the time,
Speaker 17: it was the worst thing ever happened to me. But uh,
Speaker 17: you know, at that point in time, like I said,
Speaker 17: I was not thinking outside the box at that point
Speaker 17: in time, and you know I started, you know, after
Speaker 17: I moped and laid around for a couple of weeks. Uh,
Speaker 17: you know, I looked in the mirror and uh, you know,
Speaker 17: figured out ways I can help this team win, you know,
Speaker 17: figure out ways I can be better on and off
Speaker 17: the floor. And now you know, today being the NBA champion,
Speaker 17: you know, you know, that loss, you know, and that
Speaker 17: heartbreak was the best thing that ever happened to me
Speaker 17: because it basically refocused me, It rehumbled me, and uh,
Speaker 17: you know, basically put me back in a position where
Speaker 17: I just started back with the basics, and uh, you
Speaker 17: know I was able to you know, regain who I am,
Speaker 17: you know, both on and off the floor.
Speaker 3: Miami was at the time one of the ten franchises
Speaker 3: to win multiple titles, joining the Celtics, Lakers, Warriors, Bulls, Spurs,
Speaker 3: seventy six Ers, Pistons, Knicks, and Rockets. Lebron James was
Speaker 3: most believed on his way to fulfilling that infamous promise
Speaker 3: of not one, not two, not three. To get to
Speaker 3: this point, though, the parts around him had.
Speaker 4: To evolve as well.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just about upgrading the roster from one year
Speaker 3: to the next. It wasn't just about Wade handing the
Speaker 3: lead role to Lebron full time. It also included Chris
Speaker 3: Bosh adjusting to a pair of teammates that dominate the
Speaker 3: same area of the floor he did, and adjusting to
Speaker 3: an NBA that was almost requiring big men to shoot
Speaker 3: from three point range. And then there was Eric Spolstra,
Speaker 3: the coach who'd been questioned since day one. The first
Speaker 3: season with James Wade and Bosh featured too much predictable offense,
Speaker 3: and Spolster would have his own regrets about the system
Speaker 3: he was using all season. This first championship season would
Speaker 3: provide the breakthrough both Bosh and spolsterra needed.
Speaker 9: Our team went through a lot together and all those
Speaker 9: adversities in tough times, and then you're finally able to
Speaker 9: get over the hump and climb that mountain and do
Speaker 9: it collectively. It's an incredibly gratifying experience for Spolstra.
Speaker 3: His biggest philosophical shift happened after that disappointing twenty eleven finals.
Speaker 3: He was so determined not to end another season feeling
Speaker 3: like he could have done more, so he traveled across
Speaker 3: the country to Eugene, Oregon, to meet with Ducks football
Speaker 3: coach Chip Kelly. He'd reach out to so many more
Speaker 3: coaches that offseason, including Mike Krzyzewski, John Klipowi, and Urban Meyer.
Speaker 3: His pace and space concept, most influenced by Chip Kelly's
Speaker 3: football philosophy, had the Heat playing fast and their stars
Speaker 3: playing aggressively, utilizing their athletic advantages while leaving much of
Speaker 3: the outside shooting to the support players. This way, teams
Speaker 3: like Dallas couldn't take those advantages away by comfortably settling
Speaker 3: into their defense.
Speaker 18: This brotherhood, they can't ever take it away from us.
Speaker 4: Twenty five years.
Speaker 18: From now, we're going to be coming back together in
Speaker 18: this semi circle and talking about this journey.
Speaker 3: Even within that twenty eleven twelve season, however, Spolster was
Speaker 3: proving he'd learned from his first season with this group.
Speaker 3: He'd adjust however necessary. It was never more obvious than
Speaker 3: in between playoff series against the Pacers and Celtics. Against
Speaker 3: the Pacers, the Heat had to match up with a
Speaker 3: bigger team and did it with their best big Bosh
Speaker 3: missing due to injury. In the very next series against
Speaker 3: the smaller Celtics team, Spolster changed everything about the offense.
Speaker 3: Battier was one of the versatile players who allowed Spolster
Speaker 3: to make the postseason switch with confidence.
Speaker 6: Yeah, we literally went to a like a five out offense.
Speaker 6: You know, most of our sets when CP was healthy,
Speaker 6: we're getting with these kind of like long, like ten
Speaker 6: second plays and we'd get like a you know, a
Speaker 6: cutter running across the floor, cause misdirection and try to
Speaker 6: hit you know, one of our all stars where they
Speaker 6: could go to work. So it's much more like traditional
Speaker 6: like they don't play this win in the NBA anymore,
Speaker 6: but like much more traditional sets. And we went to
Speaker 6: an entirely like red based offense. We called it five out,
Speaker 6: where the center actually was at the top of the
Speaker 6: three point line and he was the key decision maker.
Speaker 6: And it was a series of back cuts and curl
Speaker 6: cuts and still getting our guys in position to do stuff.
Speaker 6: But like and then the spacing was entirely different. And
Speaker 6: so for the first time really since those guys have
Speaker 6: been there. Because I was a group three point shooter
Speaker 6: and would draw the defense out, these guys had a
Speaker 6: room to operate and get downhill, and it was sort
Speaker 6: of like, wow, this is different. You know, we actually
Speaker 6: have space to operate now. And obviously you know, every
Speaker 6: team went to playing small ball, but that's that's the
Speaker 6: advantage of playing small where you create more space for
Speaker 6: the best players to operate, and the lanes they can
Speaker 6: get downhill get to the basket much larger, and it
Speaker 6: just puts pressure on the defense an entirely different way,
Speaker 6: and like like, defenses weren't used to that, so they
Speaker 6: had a really really hard time adjusting to sort of
Speaker 6: this news. You know, we call a pace in space
Speaker 6: game that was brand new.
Speaker 3: Spolster was also the unofficial founder of positionless basketball. Sure
Speaker 3: he had Lebron James by his side, but no one
Speaker 3: else had unlocked this version of Lebron. And after Spolster
Speaker 3: withstood the firestorm that was this Heat team and came
Speaker 3: out with a championship, he was as confident as his
Speaker 3: players were. Stan Van Gundy was an assistant coach under
Speaker 3: Riley with the Knicks and Heat. He was the head
Speaker 3: coach of the Heat from two thousand and three to
Speaker 3: two thousand and five. He coached the Orlando Magic to
Speaker 3: a Finals appearance, coached and was president of basketball operations
Speaker 3: for the Detroit Pistons, and coached the New Orleans Pelicans,
Speaker 3: and is now a color analyst for TNT. Spolster was
Speaker 3: an assistant under Van Gundy when he coached the Heat,
Speaker 3: and he coached against Van Gundy for more than a decade.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that made them scary
Speaker 2: as a competitors. I knew damn well that Eric would
Speaker 2: do a great job with that. And I think one
Speaker 2: of the reasons that Eric, say, as good as he
Speaker 2: is in general, but was great with that group is
Speaker 2: Eric's ego never gets involved in the thing. Eric is
Speaker 2: just a guy who's always searching for the best way
Speaker 2: to do things and the best way to maximize his
Speaker 2: players and his team. And he's never going to get
Speaker 2: caught up in an ego battle, you know. I don't
Speaker 2: think it ever bothered him that during that time he
Speaker 2: still didn't get as much credit as he deserved. All
Speaker 2: the credit went to Pat, And I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people saw like Pat was behind the scenes, like
Speaker 2: pulling the strings and you know, had an ear piece
Speaker 2: in and was just Eric was doing which was not
Speaker 2: close to the truth. And I think a lot of people,
Speaker 2: a lot of coaches would have gotten upset or been
Speaker 2: unnerved by that. Eric's able to block out all those things,
Speaker 2: all those distractions, all those ego things just never mattered
Speaker 2: to him. I mean, he just stayed focused on doing
Speaker 2: the best job for that team. And I think, look,
Speaker 2: you don't have to be around that for very long
Speaker 2: as a player before you have great respect. And then
Speaker 2: on top of it, it wouldn't take you very long
Speaker 2: to figure out that he knows what he's talking about
Speaker 2: basketball wise. I mean he can teach, he can coach,
Speaker 2: he can game plan, he can xin like, this guy's
Speaker 2: really really good. So you put those two things together,
Speaker 2: his tactical ability and his lack of ego, there's a
Speaker 2: third thing there is He's firm. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: like Eric's not gonna just back down. If guys like
Speaker 2: I don't feel like and walk through today, well we're
Speaker 2: gonna do walk through today, you know, regardless if they
Speaker 2: think it's too long. It's he's just not like he's
Speaker 2: going to decide what's right. I'm not saying he won't
Speaker 2: listen to his players, but he's going to decide what's
Speaker 2: right and he's going to stick to it. And you
Speaker 2: know he's not afraid. I mean, he's he's got a
Speaker 2: lot going for him. He was the perfect coach for
Speaker 2: that group.
Speaker 3: Sposture was at the very least an ideal coach for
Speaker 3: Bosh during this journey. From the start of his time
Speaker 3: with Miami, Bosh was regularly ridiculed. Even if insults were
Speaker 3: aimed at Lebron, Bosh would often get hit with shrapnel.
Speaker 3: Even Van Gundy had jokes he called Bosh Dwayne Wade's
Speaker 3: lapdog after he chose Miami.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't really and I do regret the comment,
Speaker 2: mainly because I've got unbelievable respect for Chris Boss. We
Speaker 2: had played him his Toronto team in the playoffs and
Speaker 2: you know, had a tough series with them because of
Speaker 2: Chris Bosh so certainly knew how good he was, respected
Speaker 2: his approach to the game and everything else. I think
Speaker 2: at the time it was just a little bit of discuss,
Speaker 2: I guess for these guys, you know, just he and
Speaker 2: Lebron really like having to sort of hop on the
Speaker 2: bandwagon because they couldn't get it done on their own,
Speaker 2: you know. Is the way I looked at it in
Speaker 2: retrospect looking back. You know, look all of us coaches, players, everybody.
Speaker 2: You look for the best situation you can find. Now
Speaker 2: we all do it in our jobs. I mean, if
Speaker 2: tomorrow you could find a situation that was a lot
Speaker 2: better for you and your job, you'd certainly want to
Speaker 2: do that. We all do, and so to begrudge those
Speaker 2: guys that really wasn't fair of me. But that's the
Speaker 2: way I was looking at it time, Like I looked
Speaker 2: at it as a weakness. I'll admit that's the way
Speaker 2: I'm sitting in Orlando. I'm saying, well, Lebron couldn't read
Speaker 2: us in Cleveland, and Chris couldn't beat us in Toronto,
Speaker 2: So yeah, run on down to Miami and get some
Speaker 2: you know, get some help from Dwayne, and now you
Speaker 2: guys can be good.
Speaker 3: Supposed to heard what was being said about Bosh. More importantly,
Speaker 3: he knew what kinds of sacrifices Bosh had to make
Speaker 3: to join this championship team, so supposed to reminded listeners
Speaker 3: every chance he got that Bosh was the most important
Speaker 3: piece on that team. It's hard to completely agree when
Speaker 3: you know his teammate is the league MVP, but Spoke
Speaker 3: often made his point. Battier certainly recognized Bosh's sacrifice despite
Speaker 3: joining in Bosh's second year with the Heat.
Speaker 6: You know, ceb probably had him to sacrifice the most,
Speaker 6: the most touches, the most opportunity. Look in Toronto, he
Speaker 6: was used to getting the ball, you know, twenty twenty
Speaker 6: four times in the mid post, the low posts and
Speaker 6: the high posts, and he could just sort of right
Speaker 6: and wheel and deal. And they tried that, you know,
Speaker 6: the first year the Big Three, and it just didn't
Speaker 6: work just because the spacing was was poor and Lebron
Speaker 6: and d weren't great three point shooters, so Cbe just
Speaker 6: didn't have room to operate. And so he really had
Speaker 6: to change his his his game come much more of
Speaker 6: a pick and roller. But again, like he was a
Speaker 6: power forward who didn't shoot threes that entire regular season.
Speaker 6: You know, we started Joel, Anthony and CB at the
Speaker 6: four or five, and so most people think about Chris
Speaker 6: Bosh as this like stretchy, you know, first early adopter
Speaker 6: as a small ball center, but he was still like
Speaker 6: a traditional power forward. Throw the ball to him on
Speaker 6: the blocks that let him go to work. You know,
Speaker 6: he evolved into like the ultimate weapon in terms of
Speaker 6: just being an unbelievable pick and roll defender. They probably
Speaker 6: the best pick and roll defender in the league that
Speaker 6: second and third year, and he was like the skeleton
Speaker 6: key that unlocked really everything defensively for us, and you know,
Speaker 6: offensively expanded his game. But he he sacrifice a lot.
Speaker 6: So CB deserves a lot of credit for his humility
Speaker 6: and his competitiveness to Winder in that.
Speaker 3: Stretch after a championship, Bosch and company not only knew
Speaker 3: what they had was good enough to win it all,
Speaker 3: they also knew Bosch's continued evolution would help the Heat
Speaker 3: adjust to a league that was becoming more reliant on
Speaker 3: three point shooting. Ray Allen was a part of Celtic's
Speaker 3: teams that lost to James Wade and Bosch in the
Speaker 3: previous two postseasons. Before that, he was pivotal to the
Speaker 3: Celtics winning the two thousand and eight championship in his
Speaker 3: first season with that team. The idea of him joining
Speaker 3: the Heat after having such an intense rivalry seemed unfathomable,
Speaker 3: at least to those who cheered him on or played
Speaker 3: with him in Boston. But Allen had already been involved
Speaker 3: in trade discussions that season, and the team was leaning
Speaker 3: toward building with the younger with John Rondo. Allen's other
Speaker 3: options that offseason included the Clippers, Grizzlies, Timberwolves, and Heat
Speaker 3: and the heated encounters against Myami didn't exactly have them
Speaker 3: on top of his list.
Speaker 16: Initially, I wasn't comfortable at all.
Speaker 19: It was it was such a difficult position that I
Speaker 19: was in, and we were in a position where, you know,
Speaker 19: we were on decline in Boston and there's a point
Speaker 19: in our negotiations where they seemed like they just fell apart.
Speaker 19: I had visited Miami and I was on the way,
Speaker 19: and that was even odd by the way coming down
Speaker 19: to Miami and kind of walking into Sposed office and
Speaker 19: kind of talking to them about this whole process, and
Speaker 19: there was that simbolus of you know, there's a wolf
Speaker 19: in the henhouse, you know when I walk in. And
Speaker 19: I legitimately was doing my due diligence because from there,
Speaker 19: from Miami, I was about to fly to LA because
Speaker 19: the Clippers are also on the table as well, and
Speaker 19: I really was, you know, interested in playing in LA
Speaker 19: for the Clippers. I couldn't see myself as a Heat,
Speaker 19: you know, playing for the Heat.
Speaker 3: The Clippers, who Allan was quite interested in, signed another
Speaker 3: shooting guard, Jamal Crawford, that offseason. The Grizzlies, Wolves, and
Speaker 3: Heat were Alan's final options.
Speaker 4: Memphis needed guard.
Speaker 3: Help on a defensive minded team, and Minnesota was a
Speaker 3: young team built around Kevin Love that was far away
Speaker 3: from winning at the level Alan craved. In the end,
Speaker 3: it was Alan's respect for Lebron James that tilted the
Speaker 3: scales toward Miami. When he chose the Heat, it was
Speaker 3: something of a shock to the rest of the NBA.
Speaker 3: The Heat's championship crew just added another sure fire Hall
Speaker 3: of Famer, and he provides the team with even more
Speaker 3: deadly shooting around those three dangerous attackers. It was an
Speaker 3: embarrassment of riches for a Heat team ready to make
Speaker 3: a repeat run. And the chemistry was evident right from
Speaker 3: the beginning, getting off to a twenty and six start,
Speaker 3: including wins against the Celtics and the opener, a Christmas
Speaker 3: Day Finals rematch against the Thunder and the Spurs, a
Speaker 3: team Allen in the Heat didn't know would come to
Speaker 3: be their biggest rival. The way Allen explains it, that
Speaker 3: chemistry was no accident.
Speaker 19: Well, chemistry is an interesting word because people think chemistry
Speaker 19: like you walk into a situation and it's either there
Speaker 19: or it's not. You know, people say, oh, just have
Speaker 19: great chemistry with this person, Like chemistry is a choice.
Speaker 19: It's not like you know these potions that we mix
Speaker 19: into a beaker and then all of a sudden you
Speaker 19: get this magical formula and allows everything to be great chemistry.
Speaker 16: When you're on a basketball team.
Speaker 19: You learn how to play under the rules, the circumstances,
Speaker 19: the guidelines of that team, and you learn how to
Speaker 19: respect the guys that are there, and you make yourself
Speaker 19: a part of and you kind of motify yourself into
Speaker 19: this existence of being what this team coach is And
Speaker 19: then the people on the exterior did say, wow, they
Speaker 19: got such a great chemistry. No, you worked for that,
Speaker 19: Like I know, you know, going back to my Seattle days,
Speaker 19: to Boston and in Miami, I know that I'm not
Speaker 19: getting the nineteen to twenty shots I got in Seattle.
Speaker 19: It diminished to Boston and in Miami. So if I
Speaker 19: bring that mentality into Miami, like I'm supposed to play more,
Speaker 19: I'm supposed to start, I'm supposed to do all these things,
Speaker 19: then I'm setting myself up for failure.
Speaker 3: By February of that season, the Heat had added another
Speaker 3: key role player in Chris Birdman Anderson, a six '
Speaker 3: eleventh center who'd provide much needed rebounding and rin protection.
Speaker 3: To start February, the Heat lost the game in Indiana
Speaker 3: to that Giant Pacers team that was becoming quite comfortable
Speaker 3: facing Miami. It was one of the points in the
Speaker 3: season when a team with championship hopes checks in on itself.
Speaker 3: Former NBA player and coach Sam Mitchell thought the loss
Speaker 3: was a warning sign for Miami and set much on
Speaker 3: NBA TV.
Speaker 20: But Miami, his guys still got those questions lingered out there.
Speaker 20: Everybody keeps saying they can turn it all when they
Speaker 20: want to, But I just don't agree with that. Great
Speaker 20: teams don't do that.
Speaker 2: They meet the challenge.
Speaker 20: They send messages to teams and they let them know
Speaker 20: that we're stand the dumb the team.
Speaker 3: The heat response to that loss in Indiana started with
Speaker 3: a bounce back win in Toronto two days later. Then
Speaker 3: Miami swept a six game homestand including a win over
Speaker 3: the Lakers, who had tried to make a super team
Speaker 3: of their own, with Steve Nash and Dwight Howard joining
Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles to match Miami's It was
Speaker 3: no match.
Speaker 6: I think Chalmers got a piece of it.
Speaker 11: The reflection Jags to dabasket who rows it down and
Speaker 11: Elitea's nine largest stuffy afternoons.
Speaker 3: Then Miami won four more on a road trip, starting
Speaker 3: with another defeat of vclall home and City and included
Speaker 3: a win in Chicago where they held the Bulls to
Speaker 3: sixty seven points and forced twenty six turnovers. It was
Speaker 3: Miami's ninth win in a row, and Wade and Lebron
Speaker 3: talked about a defense that was reaching playoff level intensity.
Speaker 14: Through in the season, we wasn't playing the defense we
Speaker 14: wanted to play, and I think we turned it up.
Speaker 14: You know, understand it was as stake with this team,
Speaker 14: and tonight, you know, this team picked us apart last
Speaker 14: time we played over in the sense that they got
Speaker 14: everything they wanted. Even though it was tougher them the
Speaker 14: score and a half court, they still was able to
Speaker 14: get the ball to the spots they wanted it would
Speaker 14: enable them to get offensive rebounds. So tonight we wanted
Speaker 14: to make sure that we pushed them out a little
Speaker 14: bit more. We took a few more seconds off the
Speaker 14: clock and just made a little harder.
Speaker 17: We want to try to create turnovers a low let's
Speaker 17: he gets some easy buckets and fast breakpoints. So there's
Speaker 17: just another win on the long NBA season. But the
Speaker 17: best thing about the win we got better.
Speaker 3: Miami had survived a double overtime game against Sacramento for
Speaker 3: the twelfth win and needed a game winning layup from
Speaker 3: Lebron with three seconds left to get win number sixteen
Speaker 3: against the Magic Look with Cheff.
Speaker 2: Part to play kick club Jones with they what's shoven?
Speaker 4: What fides?
Speaker 16: I'm a drive?
Speaker 10: Lesten let the heat league three seconds to play a
Speaker 10: poll that her court keep ho miny ms many wins
Speaker 10: have a winning Shixlin time to a sweet sixteen.
Speaker 17: Uh seen avatory. The middle was a little bit open.
Speaker 17: I went to my right to left cross sole was
Speaker 17: able to get into the painting finish.
Speaker 4: You guys were up twenty early in.
Speaker 3: The third quarter, before less than a quarter that they
Speaker 3: took the league.
Speaker 6: What changed.
Speaker 17: We didn't get stops in the third quarter.
Speaker 7: We allowed him to gain confidence and they.
Speaker 17: Started making shots.
Speaker 16: We didn't get stops and it allowed him to.
Speaker 17: Get back into the game.
Speaker 3: At this game, the Cleveland game, the Kings game. What
Speaker 3: is it about these non playoff teams?
Speaker 16: At home.
Speaker 4: That's been a challenge for you guys.
Speaker 17: You know, it doesn't matter who we're going against, no
Speaker 17: matter the record, we just want to win. Uh. You know,
Speaker 17: we took a step back was in the third quarter,
Speaker 17: but we picked it up in the fourth. Poll was
Speaker 17: able to get one more st and also get another bucket.
Speaker 3: When the Heat started a five game trip on March thirteenth,
Speaker 3: the streak had reached nineteen straight. On that road trip,
Speaker 3: the Heat won in Boston by overcoming a thirteen point
Speaker 3: fourth quarter deficit to win by two, and it included
Speaker 3: one of James's signature highlight plays. After forcing a Boston turnover,
Speaker 3: Norris Cole lobbed a pass for Lebron, who crushed it
Speaker 3: over a frantically defending Jason Terry, who was also called
Speaker 3: for a foul. James hovered over Terry for just long
Speaker 3: enough to receive a technical, but it was probably worth
Speaker 3: it for that tiny bit of revenge from the twenty
Speaker 3: eleven finals.
Speaker 8: Jason Terry, good defense way from behind, takes it away.
Speaker 4: Thomas Holland.
Speaker 18: Whoa and a technical foul called on Miami with a taunt.
Speaker 3: Then two nights later in Cleveland, the Heat's deficit twenty
Speaker 3: seven was actually longer than the streak at the time
Speaker 3: twenty three, and that was in the third quarter in
Speaker 3: the same building Lebron triumphantly returned home. In twenty ten.
Speaker 3: Lebron and the Heat were about to end a historic
Speaker 3: regular season run. At least it appeared as much to Battier.
Speaker 6: I think that some of the guys said, Okay, it
Speaker 6: was a great run, good run, good run. Okay, we
Speaker 6: didn't have it tonight like you had, like every team
Speaker 6: goes through this. We were like, we don't have tonight.
Speaker 6: Next one, and it was sort of the bench mob
Speaker 6: that came through and we started gunning threes and started
Speaker 6: hitting threes, and all of a sudden, the guys who
Speaker 6: were like, oh, we can win this game.
Speaker 3: The Heat were down seventy one forty eight with four
Speaker 3: to twenty eight remaining in the third quarter. That's when
Speaker 3: Battier and Chalmers took the Heat on their personal thirteen
Speaker 3: to two run to bring the deficit to a manageable
Speaker 3: twelve with one forty seven left in the period. That
Speaker 3: was the cue for James to join the party in
Speaker 3: his old stomping grounds, and at the nine to forty
Speaker 3: mark of the fourth period, Lebron hit his third three
Speaker 3: pointer in a ninety six second stretch that gave Miami
Speaker 3: an eighty to seventy nine league.
Speaker 12: Lebron pull up free. It's got and Miami that's tied
Speaker 12: the game. That's seventy seven. Oh my, what're they? Thirty
Speaker 12: seven to ten run? Yes, you have to have heart
Speaker 12: for a comeback like this. Oh my, there's another one. Yes,
Speaker 12: three triples on the fourth quarter for Lebron, and like
Speaker 12: he'd have an eighty, there's seventy nine league. Amazing, They'll
Speaker 12: eat on a forty to twelve run Allen straight away triple.
Speaker 3: Alan followed with a three of his own, and Miami
Speaker 3: never trailed again. They'd need a pair of clutch James
Speaker 3: free throws in the final seconds to hold off Cleveland
Speaker 3: and win their twenty fourth straight game. The comeback win
Speaker 3: was exhilarating. The streak itself, however, had become something of
Speaker 3: a burden. According to Haslam, the NBA record was thirty
Speaker 3: three straight wins, held by the seventy one seventy two
Speaker 3: Los Angeles Lakers. The Heat were approaching that and approaching
Speaker 3: best team ever conversations.
Speaker 4: Here's Haslam all they wanted to talk about was the street.
Speaker 21: It was no respect for our next opponent, Like there
Speaker 21: was no respect for our next opponent, Like nobody cared
Speaker 21: like it was just like they was just assumed we
Speaker 21: were just going to walk in here and beat these people,
Speaker 21: and people who don't understand you add gasoline to the
Speaker 21: fire where we go in here and play these teams,
Speaker 21: you know what I'm saying. So it stopped becoming about
Speaker 21: the next opponent in the next game, and all it
Speaker 21: came about was a streak.
Speaker 3: Wins number twenty five and twenty six came in easy
Speaker 3: fashion at home against the Pistons and Bobcats. When number
Speaker 3: twenty seven came up the road in Orlando. It ended
Speaker 3: in Chicago against the hated Bulls, with future Heat forwards
Speaker 3: lou All Dang and Jimmy Butler combining for forty five
Speaker 3: points in the streak Buster Lebron, Spolstra, Wade, and Bosh
Speaker 3: reflected on the historic streak.
Speaker 17: So we had a moment, you know, you know, just
Speaker 17: very fortunate and very humble and blessed to be a
Speaker 17: part of this team and be a part of a
Speaker 17: streak like that. You know, it's one of the it's
Speaker 17: one of the best that you know, this league has
Speaker 17: ever seen. So you know, we recognized that, you know,
Speaker 17: and rightfully so.
Speaker 18: I had everybody come in put a hand on each other,
Speaker 18: and for the first time I mentioned the streak in
Speaker 18: front of the guys, and it was worthy of at
Speaker 18: least stepping back for those few sharp moments that it
Speaker 18: was a heck of experience for all of us to
Speaker 18: have together.
Speaker 14: Unbelievable streak that we was on, you know, but in
Speaker 14: here it didn't feel like we was on this amazing street,
Speaker 14: just like we were just playing basketball and we was
Speaker 14: finding ways to win games, and it just what happened
Speaker 14: to result into twenty something wins.
Speaker 22: It's been a great run. It's been a great run.
Speaker 22: We still have a lot of work to do. But
Speaker 22: like we said before, that wasn't important to us. The
Speaker 22: streak wasn't important to us. What's important to us is
Speaker 22: to win a time.
Speaker 17: You know, this is a special team, man, and you
Speaker 17: know how we are on and off the floor. It's
Speaker 17: gonna be hard to remember everything, but you know, aw
Speaker 17: to meately, like you said, we want to win the
Speaker 17: NBA Championship and along those a longer season, along those rides,
Speaker 17: you know, you have moments throughout those rides where you
Speaker 17: can reflect on, and this is one of them.
Speaker 3: Battier had done something similar before with the Houston Rockets,
Speaker 3: even though it felt quite different. The Rockets win streak
Speaker 3: in two thousand and eight ended after twenty two games.
Speaker 6: That was way more unexplainable. You know, we're doing it
Speaker 6: with like young men getting hurt and Kevin tumblou Is
Speaker 6: fifty years old coming and giving stuff, so like it
Speaker 6: was an amazing run and we're just you know, we
Speaker 6: didn't even talk about it because we didn't know how
Speaker 6: it was happening. Now this was much different, Like, this
Speaker 6: is much more explainable. We had Hall of famers off
Speaker 6: and on the line, we're defending champs, and we just
Speaker 6: got into a zone. And when you're playing like that
Speaker 6: as a team, like you don't really like analyze it
Speaker 6: and say like, well, what are we doing better? You
Speaker 6: just are excited to get to the gym. Everyone's happy,
Speaker 6: you're joking around, and it was it was a long
Speaker 6: time between losses. I mean, I look at the calendar
Speaker 6: now there was the All Star breaking between that, and
Speaker 6: so a lot of stuff happens were you know, you
Speaker 6: could lose your bojo. But it was just one of
Speaker 6: those pure times when we were happy, we were together,
Speaker 6: we were making shots, and I'm not gonna say it
Speaker 6: was easy. It wasn't, but it just felt like, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 6: we're we're gonna win every single night we stepped on
Speaker 6: the floor.
Speaker 3: The Heat had gone more than seven weeks from February
Speaker 3: first to March twenty seventh between losses. They were fifty
Speaker 3: six and fifteen when it ended, and would finish the
Speaker 3: season with a Heat franchise record sixty six wins, six
Speaker 3: more than any other team in the league and five
Speaker 3: more than any other team in Heat history. Lebron would
Speaker 3: win his fourth MVP award after a regular season that
Speaker 3: was arguably the greatest of his career. He'd averaged just
Speaker 3: under twenty seven points, with eight rebounds and more than
Speaker 3: seven assists per game, but he shot a ridicut. He's
Speaker 3: fifty six and a half percent from the field for
Speaker 3: the season. Michael Jordan's most efficient shooting season was in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety ninety one, when he shot just under fifty
Speaker 3: four percent. James was toying with the game at times
Speaker 3: this season, going one stretch of six games where he
Speaker 3: scored thirty points or more on sixty percent.
Speaker 4: Shooting or better.
Speaker 3: That ridiculous shooting overshadowed what had been Wade's most efficient
Speaker 3: season as well.
Speaker 4: Wade shot fifty two.
Speaker 3: Percent from the field that season, a number he'd only
Speaker 3: best once the very following year, when he'd shoot fifty
Speaker 3: four and a half percent from the field. In his
Speaker 3: fourth and final season next to Lebron in Miami, Bosch's
Speaker 3: averages of just under seventeen points and seven rebounds were
Speaker 3: his lowest since before he started making All Star Games
Speaker 3: at age twenty one in Toronto, but his fifty three
Speaker 3: percent shooting from the field would be his career best,
Speaker 3: and his willingness to take a then career best seventy
Speaker 3: four to three pointers would help open up the Heat offense.
Speaker 3: The entire regular season was a magical run that saw
Speaker 3: the Heat players make a hilariously memorable video to a
Speaker 3: trendy song called Harlem Shake, where they all danced in
Speaker 3: the locker room wearing varying random costumes, and the team
Speaker 3: reached pass sports to send a powerful message. Following the
Speaker 3: killing of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen year old black teenager
Speaker 3: in Sanford, Florida. It was a season Allen was nervous
Speaker 3: about beginning, but would have no regrets during.
Speaker 19: The Harlem Shake was probably the highlight of that whole
Speaker 19: experience because in spite of trying to be held to
Speaker 19: the standard always, we were able to still be goofy,
Speaker 19: you know, we're able to still just have fun and
Speaker 19: let you know, like we love what we do. We
Speaker 19: enjoy being around each other, and we'll do something that
Speaker 19: sometimes when we go on there and practice score to
Speaker 19: where kind of dialed in like like that far, you know,
Speaker 19: in case in point.
Speaker 16: I remember when I got down to Miami.
Speaker 19: I'm just messing around to guys and y'all got stuff
Speaker 19: going on.
Speaker 6: And Ud looks at me.
Speaker 16: He goes, man, Ray, we did not know you were
Speaker 16: like this. And I looked at me. I said, what
Speaker 16: are you talking about?
Speaker 2: You?
Speaker 19: He's like, man, we just thought you just didn't say nothing.
Speaker 19: Because that was my persona on the court, you know,
Speaker 19: but off the court, you know, I like to I
Speaker 19: used to be a practical joker.
Speaker 3: When the Heat reached the playoffs in twenty thirteen, the
Speaker 3: vibes were still strong. A drama free first round sweep
Speaker 3: of the pre Yannis Milwaukee Bucks kicked things off. After
Speaker 3: a week of rest and Lebron being awarded his MVP trophy,
Speaker 3: the Heat faced those pesky Chicago Bulls, who were still
Speaker 3: without the injured Derrick Rose, but had broken the Heats
Speaker 3: twenty seven game win streak and had just come off
Speaker 3: a seven game series win against the Brooklyn Nets. Joe
Speaker 3: Kim Noah had developed into an All Star by now
Speaker 3: and was the heart and soul of these Bulls.
Speaker 23: What I remember the most about that was in the
Speaker 23: second time we played them in the playoffs, Derek was
Speaker 23: hurt and Lebron got MVP and it was on the
Speaker 23: jumbo tron.
Speaker 16: You just see all his highlights.
Speaker 23: He's dunking at the rim like all crazy and I'm
Speaker 23: looking at Nate and Nate Nate Robinson is looking up.
Speaker 16: And I was like, I just go over there.
Speaker 23: And I was like, Nate, if I see you looking
Speaker 23: up at that one more time, man, stop looking up.
Speaker 16: I was like, don't even look at that.
Speaker 23: So those are the memories that I'll remember, is just
Speaker 23: going into there.
Speaker 16: Going in there and just with that fighting spirit.
Speaker 3: That spirit and maybe a week's worth of rust for
Speaker 3: Miami was enough for Chicago to take game one of
Speaker 3: the series behind a shocking ten to nothing run to
Speaker 3: close the ninety three eighty six win. The Bulls were
Speaker 3: once again injecting a bit of fear into Miami, but
Speaker 3: it wouldn't last long, the fear or the series. The
Speaker 3: Heat won the next game by thirty seven points and
Speaker 3: the series in five games. The most memorable moment in
Speaker 3: that series wasn't even a play on the floor. It
Speaker 3: was when a fan named Philomena Tobias tossed the double
Speaker 3: birds in the direction of Noah as he was leaving
Speaker 3: the floor following an ejection.
Speaker 4: The image, if you look.
Speaker 3: It up, was Miami basketball fandom in a nutshell at
Speaker 3: the time, Heat against the world, and in the next series,
Speaker 3: the Pacers would temporarily rock that Heat world once again.
Speaker 3: Game one of the Eastern Conference Finals would require a
Speaker 3: Lebron James buzzer beating layup as a fouled out wide
Speaker 3: watched from the bench.
Speaker 2: How do you get to it at Jerse James on the.
Speaker 3: Len over time, But the Pacers would complete the deal
Speaker 3: in Game two, winning ninety seven ninety three in Miami,
Speaker 3: and suddenly the Heat were one Lebron lay up away
Speaker 3: from having been down two. Head coach Frank Vogel and
Speaker 3: his Pacers were playing to his team's strength, which was
Speaker 3: size and strong defense, to make life difficult for Miami
Speaker 3: once again. The size of Indiana's big man Roy Hibbert
Speaker 3: was what separated the Pacers from the rest of Miami's opponents,
Speaker 3: and in this series, Lebron and Wade in particular were
Speaker 3: working on their short floaters near the basket to solve
Speaker 3: the Hibbert dilemma. This wasn't going to be the cruise
Speaker 3: to the finals the rest of the league expected to watch.
Speaker 4: Here's battier.
Speaker 6: Well, Vogel did a great job of making adjustments. They
Speaker 6: didn't know how to handle our small wall the first year.
Speaker 6: The second year they did a much better job and
Speaker 6: sort of the downfall of our defense, and we were
Speaker 6: such a high pressure, high intensity defense. It was predicated
Speaker 6: on speed and like percision, and what Pacers did a
Speaker 6: very good job at is was using our aggressiveness against
Speaker 6: us and inviting the trap, getting off it and whipping
Speaker 6: the ball around and just that was the weakness of
Speaker 6: our defense, and so they did a much better job
Speaker 6: of that. And then when you add in the physicality
Speaker 6: and you know where Hibbert. That was his peak.
Speaker 8: Man.
Speaker 6: He was a big dude, and you know when he
Speaker 6: would go off and just jump at the rim, there's
Speaker 6: not much you could do if you pled Lebron and
Speaker 6: d Wade, and so they just were presented a really
Speaker 6: tricky matchup. They were more prepared against us this year,
Speaker 6: and they were hungered. I mean, they were pissed off
Speaker 6: from the year before, and they really felt that they
Speaker 6: were better than us, and we thought we were better
Speaker 6: than them. But like we knew they were a confident
Speaker 6: bunch against this.
Speaker 3: The Heat and Pacers alternated wins and losses until Miami
Speaker 3: dominated a Game seven at home ninety nine seventy six
Speaker 3: and earned a third straight trip to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 18: Never take this for granted, going on this ride to
Speaker 18: the next round and these next four, whatever it takes together.
Speaker 3: Three Game seven may have been devoid of drama, but
Speaker 3: Dwayne Wade said overcoming the adversity up to that point
Speaker 3: helped them thrive in the series clincher.
Speaker 14: I feel like we have individuals on our team they'll
Speaker 14: respond very well when adversity hit. So, you know, I
Speaker 14: kind of like it a little bit, you know, I
Speaker 14: kind of like the way that our team is when
Speaker 14: we get to those moments when our backs against the
Speaker 14: wall as individuals, because we got winners, We got champions
Speaker 14: in our locker room, and you know you don't become
Speaker 14: a champion by luck.
Speaker 3: Awaiting them in that last series of the year was
Speaker 3: a team the Heat beat both times they played in
Speaker 3: the regular season, the San Antonio Spurs.
Speaker 4: The unassuming team.
Speaker 3: From south central Texas had twice as many championships as
Speaker 3: the Heat to this point, with all four of them
Speaker 3: coming while head coach Greg Popovich and Tim Duncan led
Speaker 3: the way, and while the Heat went through a postseason
Speaker 3: defeating familiar teams with similar physical styles, the Spurs would
Speaker 3: provide an entire highly different look offensively and a defensive
Speaker 3: strategy that had already flummoxed to young Lebron James in
Speaker 3: the two thousand and seven finals while he was a Cavalier.
Speaker 3: It's the final series of the third season of this
Speaker 3: now champion Heat team led by James, Wade and Bosh,
Speaker 3: and it's possible they were about to face their greatest challengers.
Speaker 4: Yet here's Ray Allen.
Speaker 19: The problem is going into San Antonio, they're not gonna
Speaker 19: let you ground and pound them. They're gonna be moving,
Speaker 19: they're gonna be setting screens, and you look this way,
Speaker 19: you look that way, and all of a sudden, the
Speaker 19: guy's not there anymore. The offense is so much motion
Speaker 19: they throw the ball ahead that you just never know
Speaker 19: who is gonna score. And we have more of a
Speaker 19: traditional way playing through three players.
Speaker 16: Even though they played through three players.
Speaker 19: Patty Mills was a killer out there, Danny Green was
Speaker 19: a killer were out there. You know, guys that came
Speaker 19: off the bench were just as productive as their starters,
Speaker 19: and it made it much more difficult for us in
Speaker 19: trying to guard those.
Speaker 4: Guys on the next four years.
Speaker 6: If he.
Speaker 21: That's the doubt you get from San Antonio, because unlike
Speaker 21: some teams, they're not gonna lose it.
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to win it.
Speaker 17: You know, with twenty plus seconds ago and us being
Speaker 17: down five, you know, the human nature doubts starts to
Speaker 17: creep into your mind.
Speaker 14: You see San Antonio fans popping in jerseys, you know,
Speaker 14: jumping up and down. It's a dark moment.
Speaker 6: I was trying to will it in existence. That's the
Speaker 6: way to say. We were all trying to will that
Speaker 6: that feeling into existence. I don't know in our heart
Speaker 6: of hearts if be truly truly confident, but we were
Speaker 6: trying to fake it. That we've made it.
Speaker 13: It's like, holy smokes, like this is surreal, Like we're
Speaker 13: about to win the NBA Championship in Game six. Did
Speaker 13: not see this coming, and then no one saw what
Speaker 13: coming what happened after that?
Speaker 19: You know, all the shots I've hit my career, like
Speaker 19: this is the one that people will talk about the most,
Speaker 19: and this will be the one that you know at
Speaker 19: this stage, at this level, where it changed the tide.
Speaker 16: Of a lot of people's careers on both sides.
Speaker 13: And then to get to that point where the trophy's
Speaker 13: twelve feet to your left, it's hard to put that
Speaker 13: into words, what that emotion was.
Speaker 3: Four Years of Heat is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 3: the NBA