Game Thread: Magic (29-42) @ Heat (41-30) 3/25 8PM ET

[ezzzp]

As a long-time Magic fan, the fact that this team sucks so bad is made so much worse by how consistently successful the Heat have been in Miami. Lost Shaq, no problem. Lost LeBron, no problem. Rebuild on the fly, keep winning. With what Miami (lost LeBron), Charlotte (rebuild), Boston (major rebuild) and Detroit (rebuild) are doing, I can't imagine Hennigan will have a job too much longer.

Whiteside is always praising Riley and the Heat organization. Heck, he already made comments about recruiting players to the Heat. I doubt Whiteside leaves. Players seem to love it there.

I have lived in Miami, its an amazing place to live...can't say I blame them. A truly international city like no other in the US. Amazing food, incredible beauty everywhere you go, culture, major sports teams, incredible nightlife and day-life + no state tax...Its a key reason the Heat have been able to lure quality people like Riley and Shaq.

[BadMofoPimp]

As a long-time Magic fan, the fact that this team sucks so bad is made so much worse by how consistently successful the Heat have been in Miami. Lost Shaq, no problem. Lost LeBron, no problem. Rebuild on the fly, keep winning. With what Miami (lost LeBron), Charlotte (rebuild), Boston (major rebuild) and Detroit (rebuild) are doing, I can't imagine Hennigan will have a job too much longer.

Whiteside is always praising Riley and the Heat organization. Heck, he already made comments about recruiting players to the Heat. I doubt Whiteside leaves. Players seem to love it there.

If he wants to get paid he'll leave. They aren't gonna risk Wade leaving to resign Whiteside.


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I think they take Whiteside over Wade or Wade takes a paycut.

[BadMofoPimp]

As a long-time Magic fan, the fact that this team sucks so bad is made so much worse by how consistently successful the Heat have been in Miami. Lost Shaq, no problem. Lost LeBron, no problem. Rebuild on the fly, keep winning. With what Miami (lost LeBron), Charlotte (rebuild), Boston (major rebuild) and Detroit (rebuild) are doing, I can't imagine Hennigan will have a job too much longer.

Whiteside is always praising Riley and the Heat organization. Heck, he already made comments about recruiting players to the Heat. I doubt Whiteside leaves. Players seem to love it there.

I have lived in Miami, its an amazing place to live...can't say I blame them. A truly international city like no other in the US. Amazing food, incredible beauty everywhere you go, culture, major sports teams, incredible nightlife and day-life + no state tax...Its a key reason the Heat have been able to lure quality people like Riley and Shaq.

I go down there once a month to practice with a band. The city has truly transformed in the last 20 years into a nice city.

[KingRobb02]

But imagine being a supporter of a team whose own fans had to beg to be let back into the building in the middle of a finals game having thought they'd lost. Plastic fantastic down in South Beach.

People give Heat fans a hard time for this and it's kind of stupid. There is no worse feeling than still being in your seat as the opponent has confetti falling because they just clinched a title in your building.

Whilst there may be no worse feeling, when in the Finals you should support your team till the end. And if they'd have done that they wouldn't have embarrassed themselves.

Plus this isn't the first case where the Miami sports fan has been categorised as fair-weather.

Of course Miami fans are fair weather. It's a city mostly made up of people from other places. It's not like New York where people are Knicks/Yankees fans because their dads and grandpas were.

Side Question: Were you there in '09? I absolutely wish I would have left before I did.

[npiper17]

People give Heat fans a hard time for this and it's kind of stupid. There is no worse feeling than still being in your seat as the opponent has confetti falling because they just clinched a title in your building.

Whilst there may be no worse feeling, when in the Finals you should support your team till the end. And if they'd have done that they wouldn't have embarrassed themselves.

Plus this isn't the first case where the Miami sports fan has been categorised as fair-weather.

Of course Miami fans are fair weather. It's a city mostly made up of people from other places. It's not like New York where people are Knicks/Yankees fans because their dads and grandpas were.

Side Question: Were you there in '09? I absolutely wish I would have left before I did.

So what's your point? If fans of the Heat are from other places then why are they fans of the Heat to begin with? Wouldn't they be fans of the team from whence they originally came?

Sadly, being from and living in the UK, I was not there in 2009 and if I had been I would have stayed till the end. Why? Well I guess this partly speaks to my long-held theory that with Brits having their sports fandom founded in the tribal nature of football (soccer), Brits tend to more team-oriented / loyal fans in general over Americans who, in general, seem to be more player fan oriented.

Of course this is just a generalisation but in my experience, it has some truth.

[KingRobb02]

Whilst there may be no worse feeling, when in the Finals you should support your team till the end. And if they'd have done that they wouldn't have embarrassed themselves.

Plus this isn't the first case where the Miami sports fan has been categorised as fair-weather.

Of course Miami fans are fair weather. It's a city mostly made up of people from other places. It's not like New York where people are Knicks/Yankees fans because their dads and grandpas were.

Side Question: Were you there in '09? I absolutely wish I would have left before I did.

So what's your point? If fans of the Heat are from other places then why are they fans of the Heat to begin with? Wouldn't they be fans of the team from whence they originally came?

Sadly, being from and living in the UK, I was not there in 2009 and if I had been I would have stayed till the end. Why? Well I guess this partly speaks to my long-held theory that with Brits having their sports fandom founded in the tribal nature of football (soccer), Brits tend to more team-oriented / loyal fans in general over Americans who, in general, seem to be more player fan oriented.

Of course this is just a generalisation but in my experience, it has some truth.

You seem to be confusing fans with the subset of people who can afford Finals tickets in Miami. Miami has plenty of die hards, but most of the people who make it to the arena are the people willing to pay large sums of money. So when I say Miami fans are fair weather, I just mean the people you see in the stands are probably just the type who wanted to hop on the LeBron bandwagon. Quite frankly I can't fault them for being bandwagon hoppers. Whenever a team becomes a celebrity, this is bound to happen. The Celtic jumped from 20th in attendance to 12th between 2006-07 and 2007-08. Are you going to say they are fair weather too? Also, lets not exaggerate how many people left. The reports all say that hundreds left the arena. American Airlines can hold 20,000 people. Even if it turns out 1000 people left, that's like 5%. In other words, at least 95% of fans stayed.

[npiper17]

Of course Miami fans are fair weather. It's a city mostly made up of people from other places. It's not like New York where people are Knicks/Yankees fans because their dads and grandpas were.

Side Question: Were you there in '09? I absolutely wish I would have left before I did.

So what's your point? If fans of the Heat are from other places then why are they fans of the Heat to begin with? Wouldn't they be fans of the team from whence they originally came?

Sadly, being from and living in the UK, I was not there in 2009 and if I had been I would have stayed till the end. Why? Well I guess this partly speaks to my long-held theory that with Brits having their sports fandom founded in the tribal nature of football (soccer), Brits tend to more team-oriented / loyal fans in general over Americans who, in general, seem to be more player fan oriented.

Of course this is just a generalisation but in my experience, it has some truth.

You seem to be confusing fans with the subset of people who can afford Finals tickets in Miami. Miami has plenty of die hards, but most of the people who make it to the arena are the people willing to pay large sums of money. So when I say Miami fans are fair weather, I just mean the people you see in the stands are probably just the type who wanted to hop on the LeBron bandwagon. Quite frankly I can't fault them for being bandwagon hoppers. Whenever a team becomes a celebrity, this is bound to happen. The Celtic jumped from 20th in attendance to 12th between 2006-07 and 2007-08. Are you going to say they are fair weather too? Also, lets not exaggerate how many people left. The reports all say that hundreds left the arena. American Airlines can hold 20,000 people. Even if it turns out 1000 people left, that's like 5%. In other words, at least 95% of fans stayed.

Sorry but you're presenting a confused argument here.

Originally you said that Heat fans were fair weather because of Miami's population being made up of people who are from elsewhere in the US and therefore have loyalty to those cities / teams.

Now you're saying it's because the true diehards can't afford Finals tickets?

So which is it?

And who went to the Finals games then? Non-Miamians who have loyalty to a different city / team but decided to support the Heat during their championship run but not quite enough to stay and watch the game?

By the way I would love to see the data you must have on attendees of the Heat finals game being non-diehards vs diehards? Or are you just speculating?

And as I said above; my opinion on Heat fans being bandwagon / fair weather isn't just based on those that walked out before the end of a Finals game. Compare them to the likes of Warriors fans who,
on the whole, have supported their team through bad and good teams (although undoubtedly there are Warriors 'fans' who have joined the bandwagon since last season).