The Miami Heat’s Downfall - Part I

A Tragedy in Five Acts

March 27, 2008

Sophokles has a lot in store for poor Oedipus: born a prince, he is left to die in the wilderness where he is found and adopted by another royal family. He later becomes king, a hero that kills the evil Sphinx only to die in shameful exile, blind and in rags. Would we care as much about his fate if Oedipus had just been a regular guy to begin with?

The fascination of watching someone’s fall from the highest summit to the pits of hell is a theatrical motif as old as theatre itself. And it’s also the reason why I am going to take you for a ride along the Miami Heat’s high rise and fast fall – instead of, say, a tour of the Memphis Grizzlies’ perpetual mediocrity. In fact, I can’t think of a team, a superstar and a Hall of Fame Coach that epitomize the fall from grace better than the franchise from South Beach.

To give Sophokles his due, I’ll present the different parts of the story in five acts. Thence, without further ado, the curtain shall be withdrawn.

1st Act: Building and Rising

The Miami Heat, freshly coming off an inspiring ride to the Conference Semi-finals, in the summer of 2004 traded three fifths of their starting five – Caron Butler, Lamar Odom and the since-retired Brian Grant – to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the game’s most notorious and feared weapon: Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq was just coming off a frustrating defeat in the Finals at the hands of the Detroit Pistons who had dismantled the overwhelming favourites starring sure-fire Hall of Fame picks Karl Malone, Gary Payton and Kobe Bryant 4 games to 1.

Shaq and Kobe’s monstrous egos had clashed more than once during their time together and Mitch Kupchak, LA’s general manager, decided it was time to split up the duo. He chose to keep the younger, more athletic and electrifying Kobe over the often too casual O'Neal. This perceived slight motivated Shaq to get in shape like he hadn’t in years, he came second to Steve Nash in MVP voting and he led his Heat along with blossoming new side-kick Dwyane Wade all the way to the Conference Finals 2005 where once again he lost to the Pistons; this time in seven games.

2nd Act: Just Falling Short

Some of the media blamed Miami’s defeat on bad coaching by Heat Coach Stan Van Gundy. Crucially, O'Neal seemed to agree to that criticism and fell way short of publicly supporting his embattled coach. So, hardly anybody believed van Gundy when he cited personal reasons (‘I want to see my kids grow up’) as the reason he stepped down early in the 2005/2006 season. Especially, after team president and GM Pat Riley took over the job.

Riley gained fame as the head coach of the showtime Lakers in the 1980s, winning four championships on the back of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. His last title, however, was almost two decades ago and it was more than plausible to assume that he kicked van Gundy to the kerb for a chance at a fifth title. A title that would cement his standing as one of the best coaches in history.

3rd Act: The Summit

After struggling at the start of the season, Miami came together for a stretch run before the playoff and went on to the Conference Finals where they were to face the highly favoured Pistons who had won a league best 64 games under new and more offense-oriented coach Flip Saunders. Detroit appeared to rely on its much-mentioned ability to turn it on when it mattered but failed to muster the same energy and sense of urgency that Miami played with. While Shaq was still the vocal leader of the team, Dwyane Wade had slowly taken over the reins on the court. Gifted with a lethal first step and helped by new officiating rules that favoured perimeter players, Wade was unstoppable for opposing defenses. The Dallas Mavericks were no exception.

After barely scraping by the San Antonio Spurs in seven games on a last-second three-point-play by Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavs defeated his best friend Steve Nash’s Phoenix Suns to advance to a Finals matchup with Miami, in which they were generally considered the superior team. Up two games and leading comfortably in the fourth quarter of Game 3, the Mavs were undone by Dwyane Wade’s stellar performance, their own nerves and excruciatingly bad officiating. The Heat won the next four games and finally held a parade on South Beach.

The curtain falls. It’s time for some champagne and chatter. Come back tomorrow for the second part of the drama!

to read the second part click here:[1]

- Ole