Riley’s “Heat Culture” mission statement for his team is “the hardest-working, best conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA.”
Believe me when I say my eye sockets hurt from all the eye rolling that phrase has triggered through the years. I’m sure that is what most NFL fans felt when they heard about the Patriot Way. You know, without the titles.
Of course, if I take a step back and look at the mission statement objectively, I can’t really argue with most of the goals named. All great teams aspire to be the majority of those things, though “meanest” and “nastiest” are both questionable and repetitive. I would argue that you don’t have to be nasty to have a competitive sharpness, but I digress.
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By all accounts, it sounds like the Jimmy Butler era in Miami is coming to a close. He’s finally annoyed Pat Riley enough to force the team to start listening to trade offers (as if they haven’t been having quiet discussions all along).
In moments like this, I generally try to put into words the feelings that the majority of Celtics fans are feeling. This one is actually kind of tricky. There’s the initial mocking instinct that we reserve for our most hated rivals (you don’t need to mock the Hornets, they don’t merit it). Then there’s the begrudging admission that it is very much a relief to see this era come to an end. At the height of their power, nothing got Celtics fans gnawing away at fingernails quite like Coach Spo drawing up an ATO surrounded by Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and some random collection of guys having career years. Finally, under all those emotions, there’s just a sliver of sadness. Maybe that’s just respect for a worthy rival. Or maybe it is the reminder that all great eras come to an end.
Some Miami fans might argue that this is not the end and urge me to wait and see what they can get in return for Jimmy. The sad truth (for them) is that things don’t look good from here forward. Michael Pina puts it like this in his recent The Ringer article.
The natural pivot at this point would be a deliberate step backward. But, in Miami, the word “rebuild” is synonymous with failure. It goes against the dignified self-image and sky-high aspirations that help separate the Heat from almost every other organization. (They watched LeBron James walk out the door in 2014 and responded by signing Luol Deng, trading for Goran Dragic, and then winning 48 games two years later!) It’s also a logistical nightmare.
All is not lost for Miami, of course. They could pivot to a new era and see what happens. Pina points out that they can open up a lot of cap space in 2026. Bill Simmons points out that Miami is one of the destinations that could actually make things work with Zion Williamson (in theory). Stars are still going to want to take their talents to South Beach.
But all of that is going to take time. Perhaps enough time for the current Celtics era to run its own natural course.
So, what we’re left with is a long list of stress triggering memories:
- Bam blocking Tatum in the Bubble.
- Jimmy missing a shot at the buzzer that would have capped an epic comeback (or an epic collapse from our perspective).
- Derrick White’s putback bucket that kept the Celtics’ comeback dreams alive.
- Caleb Martin inexplicably morphing into Dwyane Wade for just that playoff series.
- It is hard to list any moments from last year’s series since it was rather anti-climatic and sad.
I don’t know what is coming for the future of the Heat. I do know that they gave us a lot of memories and a worthy opponent. Many of those past losses to the Heat provided fuel for this version of the Celtics to improve and stay motivated through the whole of last season. Or said another way, the Miami Heat helped shape the Celtics into champions. And for that we owe them some degree of begrudging gratitude. You know, after the sarcastic mocking.
