There is no praise too high for the Miami "Heat" organization: their "culture," the talent-spotting of their front office, the work ethic. (And, one more thing I didn't realize until tonight.) I'll let others speak for me. This is the highly intelligent, very analytical writer Zach Lowe of ESPN:
"They play so hard. There is a perverse joy in watching Miami, frothing at the mouth, pulverize some poor team coming off a back-to-back or a hard night out on South Beach. You almost see the victim pleading: "Can you guys just take it easy, once?" No. No, they cannot."
This is what I did not know: Erik Spoelstra (and LeBron James) came up with the idea of "positionless basketball." Not as revolutionary as was Pep Guardiola's perfection and implementation of Johann Cruyff's "tiki-taka" idea in soccer but...Again, others will speak:
"The phrase “positionless basketball” first began to gain traction at the start of Miami training camp in 2012, when LeBron and his then-coach, Erik Spoelstra, began bandying it around."
https://the-cauldron.com/positionless-basketball-reigns-supreme-58bdfcf84c0c
And this was Steve Kerr in 2014:
“Watching the league the last couple of years as a broadcaster, it was Erik Spoelstra’s term, positionless basketball. That’s the way the league has changed."
Spoelstra had arguments with Pat Riley over positionless basketball.
"Pat Riley has always played traditional lineups featuring big men."
Spo was the coach, so Riley let him do it. HE WASN'T SOLD ON IT but it wasn't his team anymore.
"Wherever coach Spo wants to take this position-less game . . . wherever it goes, however he feels..."http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-miami-heat-james-johnson-20170717-story.html
Riles seems more sold on it now:
"They play so hard. There is a perverse joy in watching Miami, frothing at the mouth, pulverize some poor team coming off a back-to-back or a hard night out on South Beach. You almost see the victim pleading: "Can you guys just take it easy, once?" No. No, they cannot."
This is what I did not know: Erik Spoelstra (and LeBron James) came up with the idea of "positionless basketball." Not as revolutionary as was Pep Guardiola's perfection and implementation of Johann Cruyff's "tiki-taka" idea in soccer but...Again, others will speak:
"The phrase “positionless basketball” first began to gain traction at the start of Miami training camp in 2012, when LeBron and his then-coach, Erik Spoelstra, began bandying it around."
https://the-cauldron.com/positionless-basketball-reigns-supreme-58bdfcf84c0c
And this was Steve Kerr in 2014:
“Watching the league the last couple of years as a broadcaster, it was Erik Spoelstra’s term, positionless basketball. That’s the way the league has changed."
Spoelstra had arguments with Pat Riley over positionless basketball.
"Pat Riley has always played traditional lineups featuring big men."
Spo was the coach, so Riley let him do it. HE WASN'T SOLD ON IT but it wasn't his team anymore.
"Wherever coach Spo wants to take this position-less game . . . wherever it goes, however he feels..."http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-heat/fl-sp-miami-heat-james-johnson-20170717-story.html
Riles seems more sold on it now:
Pat Riley says Miami Heat goal is to transcend having to have a Big Three
"It's almost going to be impossible for us to have a superstar out of this group because how we play is a position-less game...
"I think this is going to be a real exciting year. But one thing we will bring to the table every single night is we will bring a highly conditioned team, a very disciplined team and a team that is going to get after it with some very talented players.
"...What they need to do is to transform and transcend above and beyond having to have a Big Three. And I do think we have the ability to do that internally."
I, Benjamin Harris, have followed this franchise since inception, was at the very first game, and I have never seen Pat Riley so...happy, excited, whatever, as he is, as he was when the team turned it around last year, as he has been since, for what that is worth. This team captured me. And I am very excited also about the new season. I think it is going to be a very successful season on Biscayne Bay, one that will capture the basketbal world too.
