The Article that sat the Miami Heat off in the 2006 Finals

JordansBulls · Post #1 » by **JordansBulls** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:35 am

The Article that sat the Miami Heat off in the 2006 NBA Finals and why writing stuff in Newspapers and saying things motivate other teams.

Source: DallasNews

Call me a Western Conference snob. The Heat has no chance (have no chance? I don't know, why don't they get a real nickname?) in this series.

The Heat wants to play games in the 80s because it isn't good enough to score 90.

Source: WashingtonPost

When they saw a headline in one of the Dallas newspapers calling the Heat an "Unworthy" opponent after the first couple of games, the Miami players seriously took offense. Before many others caught on, Wade, who is something of a techie, was online and got a whiff of city officials planning a celebration after the first two games of the series: "They'd already set up Parade.com. They already had their parade route and everything."

Miami's players and coaches didn't like that, either.

That in itself was the cause of the Mavs losing, just the fact the city was preparing for a parade after 2 games.

Post #2 » by **dockingsched** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:41 am

logistics are logistics

ronnymac2 · Post #3 » by **ronnymac2** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:20 am

Wow...I'm happy for Alonzo after reading that Wilbon piece. He's a good guy, and an all-time great basketball player.

I liked that Heat team. That article was really good. Strong willed people who fight when challenged and questioned make the best teams. That comes from the leaders, and having riley, shaq, wade, zo, and gp gives you great leadership.

lol at the mavs and especially their media people. That mavs writer should have shut the hell up. if he had, maybe Wade wouldn't have embarrassed his team.

Ballings7 · Post #4 » by **Ballings7** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:35 am

I remember hearing about something like that after... reading the specifics now, I love it even more how Miami won that series.

Oh, and beating any team four times in a row (including the final game on the road) is absolutely not a "fluke". Frustration and/or jealousy, and a lack of respect is what that is. The "Dallas should of" stuff is complete garbage, also.

miamiballer · Post #5 » by **miamiballer** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:40 am

in the words of rudy t,

never underestimate the heart of a champion

dreamcloud · Post #6 » by **dreamcloud** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:41 am

Did the Dallas article disable comments? Would've loved to see the comments after game 6 :lol:

Also did he ever right up a follow-up article after series was over?

Post #7 » by **dockingsched** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:41 am

miamiballer wrote:in the words of rudy t,

never underestimate the heart of a champion

of course, the heat weren't a champion at the time. rudy t's comment refers to the rockets defending their crown.

Post #8 » by **BBallFreak** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 10:47 am

dcash4 wrote:
miamiballer wrote:in the words of rudy t,

never underestimate the heart of a champion

of course, the heat weren't a champion at the time. rudy t's comment refers to the rockets defending their crown.

The Heat were Eastern Conference Champions.

As for the original piece... wow... That guy must feel like a real SOB after giving Miami such a great motivational piece...

Sedale Threatt · Post #9 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:57 pm

So let me get this straight -- the Heat are down 15 or whatever it was in the fourth quarter of Game 3, and all of a sudden they said to each other, Remember the article. And from there, they proceeded to blow the Mavericks off the court.

That's a nice little story, but I have a really hard time believing that a single newspaper column -- as bad as it reads after the fact -- was what propelled the Miami Heat to their only championship.

I have no doubt they heard about it, as well as the parade plans, and it pissed them off. But if you truly need motivation at that point, down 0-2 and on the verge of getting embarrassed in the Finals, then you were never going to win in the first place.

Post #10 » by **DDansby123** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:18 pm

Desparate teams search for motivation anywhere, even if they have to overlook some facts and blow some things out of proportion to find it. Hell, even fans did that after the series was over.

Sedale Threatt · Post #11 » by **Sedale Threatt** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 2:29 pm

DDansby123 wrote:Desparate teams search for motivation anywhere, even if they have to overlook some facts and blow some things out of proportion to find it. Hell, even fans did that after the series was over.

I suppose.

I'm just getting a kick out of this notion that, if the Heat truly did get motivation from a newspaper article, it didn't finally kick in until the fourth quarter of Game 3, like some sort of time-released drug. First quarter -- not motivated. Second quarter -- not motivated. Third quarter -- not motivated. Fourth quarter -- F that columnist. All right, NOW we're ready to ball.

EDIT -- and just to shovel even more isht on this theory, I just went back to re-skim the piece and noticed it was actually published before Game 2. So I guess we'll have to add that to the equation. Our updated timeline -- the Heat read this, got mortally pissed, then slept walked through 7.5 quarters of basketball, spread over a few days, before it finally kicked in.

Post #12 » by **dockingsched** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:01 pm

BBallFreak wrote:
dcash4 wrote:
miamiballer wrote:in the words of rudy t,

never underestimate the heart of a champion

of course, the heat weren't a champion at the time. rudy t's comment refers to the rockets defending their crown.

The Heat were Eastern Conference Champions.

As for the original piece... wow... That guy must feel like a real SOB after giving Miami such a great motivational piece...

do they have a banner for that too?

Baller 24 · Post #13 » by **Baller 24** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:07 pm

BBallFreak wrote:
dcash4 wrote:
miamiballer wrote:in the words of rudy t,

never underestimate the heart of a champion

of course, the heat weren't a champion at the time. rudy t's comment refers to the rockets defending their crown.

The Heat were Eastern Conference Champions.

As for the original piece... wow... That guy must feel like a real SOB after giving Miami such a great motivational piece...

But they weren't NBA champions the year before, which is what Rudy T. was referring to when they won it in '95 since they were the whole way there the underdogs as the 6th seed.

Heat3 · Post #14 » by **Heat3** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:33 pm

lol. What's funny is the dallas article makes fun of Walker for saying no adjustments need to be made, meanwhile later in the series it was Avery Johnson making tons of adjustments that eventually hurt the team (which is why he's out of a job now cause he does it every year lol). Remember he moved them to some crappy hotel far from Miami cause his players were making excuses.

I don't know if they disabled comments, but I know Mark Cuban disabled comments on his blog once the Heat were ahead in the series lol

I believe that Zo's press conference after game 6 is on youtube somewhere. It was great to see and very emotional.

milehigh · Post #15 » by **milehigh** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 3:50 pm

That article would sat me off to!

HarlemHeat37 · Post #16 » by **HarlemHeat37** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:52 pm

Sedale Threatt wrote:So let me get this straight -- the Heat are down 15 or whatever it was in the fourth quarter of Game 3, and all of a sudden they said to each other, Remember the article. And from there, they proceeded to blow the Mavericks off the court.

.

Iggyemu · Post #17 » by **Iggyemu** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 5:29 pm

And Dallas hasn't and never will recover. Dirk and company just too soft.

Heat3 · Post #18 » by **Heat3** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 12:23 am

dcash4 wrote:
BBallFreak wrote:
The Heat were Eastern Conference Champions.

As for the original piece... wow... That guy must feel like a real SOB after giving Miami such a great motivational piece...

do they have a banner for that too?

Actually....I believe we do have a banner for that haha. We have division championship banners too. Don't be jealous, not all teams can roll like us 8-)

Roscoe Sheed · Post #19 » by **Roscoe Sheed** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:23 am

were the refs offended too? I mean, I'm no Dallas fan, but man were they screwed in that series

shaqfan1 · Post #20 » by **shaqfan1** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:28 am

Roscoe Sheed wrote:were the refs offended too? I mean, I'm no Dallas fan, but man were they screwed in that series

Actually, you're a Lakers fan, which means you're even more biased than Dallas fans when it comes to the 2006 NBA Finals.