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NBA Final: Heat's effort problem a stain on the league - CBSSports.com
Maybe it was just a series of soundbytes. Maybe it's denial. Maybe it's just a byproduct of a situation I can't understand as I've never played professional sports. But the way the Miami Heat talked about "effort" on Wednesday after their Game 3 blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals was just unbelievable.
"We didn't give the effort that we needed to give," forward Chris Bosh said at practice Wednesday. "And it's really embarrassing to be a part of that, honestly."
It's pretty embarrassing to hear a team playing for an NBA championship after losing a pivotal game in a tied series talk about effort, Chris. Bosh is thoughtful, genuine, and maybe a little bit sensitive, and typically I don't go in for the Chris Bosh destruction glee that the internet has made into a growth industry. But the matter-of-fact way the Heat talked about simply not playing hard, on the road in a crucial game in the championship round is simply stunning and disgusting at the same time. It's stungusting.
"I just think after a while we didn't have the same effort, the same energy," guard Ray Allen said.
"A lack of effort," point guard Mario Chalmer said. "That's what we have to adjust."
Shouldn't it be surprising that effort is an issue this late in the season, Rio? With only five games left (before Game 3) at most?
"It's definitely surprising, but it's something we have to fix and figure out. "
Well, yes, that's true, otherwise you can go back to half-energy while the world mocks this superstar team for failing to deliver on its promise two-out-of-three years.
"It's disappointing we didn't play the game defensively the way that we can," Dwyane Wade said. "We're not pointing fingers at each other. We're not pointing fingers at anyone. It was collective as a group. We all had our hand and our part in that. So like I said, and I'll continue to say it, I'm sure you'll hear it, we just got to play better. We have to own up to it. If we bring that same effort and focus the next game, it will be the same outcome."
I love the NBA. I cover it daily, nearly 24-hours a day. It's the first thing I read about when I wake up, usually the last thing I watch before I go to sleep. I'm invested in the NBA and defend it as a great product. I tell you this so you understand the severity of what I'm about to say.
Watching the Miami Heat play and then say things like this makes it easy to understand why so many people don't like the NBA. You simply don't have to give the kind of supreme effort that we've come to love in sports. The Heat could very well win the next three games and win the title and no one would bat an eye. This after they failed to try in an NBA Finals game.
This is not a Heat-only thing, ever. Don't get fooled. The Celtics coasted against the Hawks in 2008. The Lakers were notorious for playing down to their opponent in both 2009 and 2010. The Heat did seem genuinely engaged in 2012, and you saw the results. But now here we are again, back to what Miami looked like in 2011 for long stretches, simply not committing to the kind of efforts you expect from championship teams in the ideal.
This is a late-playoffs gripe, let's be clear. I don't mind guys mailing it in in Charlotte in February. I don't have a problem with the back-to-back disaster vs. Denver in the altitude off five hours sleep. But when an NBA title is on the line, especially for a team with historic expectations riding on the outcome, you do expect to hear something better than "we didn't try hard enough."
What on Earth could bring more effort? An easier schedule? More money? A cookie?
I can not imagine the kind of physical exertion that goes into playing in an NBA game. The intensity of muscle movement is incomprehensible to me. But in a life before writing about grown men bouncing a leather ball, I did know what actual work is. And when something is important to you, you'll throw your soul into it, you'll burn bridges, wreck your body, sacrifice the hardest parts of yourself for it. The Heat instead seem content to just shrug and say "Whoops, didn't play hard enough, that's a bummer."
Miami's killer instinct has long been suspect. They dominated a younger, more inexperienced Thunder team in 2012 to win their only championship of the Triad era. Now they face a Game 4 that could put them on the brink of elimination and essentially shut them down. Does this team have the fight to come back from a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 deficit? Considering they can't muster the willpower to fight their way into anything closer than a 36-point loss in Game 3, you have to think the answer is no.
Maybe they'll come back and respond in Game 4, maybe they won't. But to hear a team on this stage, with this kind of potential, throw up a self-critical and honest, but crushingly disappointing answer of "we didn't give good enough effort," it just makes you wonder.
How is a CBA ever going to fix a league with that kind of problem?
Maybe it was just a series of soundbytes. Maybe it's denial. Maybe it's just a byproduct of a situation I can't understand as I've never played professional sports. But the way the Miami Heat talked about "effort" on Wednesday after their Game 3 blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals was just unbelievable.
"We didn't give the effort that we needed to give," forward Chris Bosh said at practice Wednesday. "And it's really embarrassing to be a part of that, honestly."
It's pretty embarrassing to hear a team playing for an NBA championship after losing a pivotal game in a tied series talk about effort, Chris. Bosh is thoughtful, genuine, and maybe a little bit sensitive, and typically I don't go in for the Chris Bosh destruction glee that the internet has made into a growth industry. But the matter-of-fact way the Heat talked about simply not playing hard, on the road in a crucial game in the championship round is simply stunning and disgusting at the same time. It's stungusting.
"I just think after a while we didn't have the same effort, the same energy," guard Ray Allen said.
"A lack of effort," point guard Mario Chalmer said. "That's what we have to adjust."
Shouldn't it be surprising that effort is an issue this late in the season, Rio? With only five games left (before Game 3) at most?
"It's definitely surprising, but it's something we have to fix and figure out. "
Well, yes, that's true, otherwise you can go back to half-energy while the world mocks this superstar team for failing to deliver on its promise two-out-of-three years.
"It's disappointing we didn't play the game defensively the way that we can," Dwyane Wade said. "We're not pointing fingers at each other. We're not pointing fingers at anyone. It was collective as a group. We all had our hand and our part in that. So like I said, and I'll continue to say it, I'm sure you'll hear it, we just got to play better. We have to own up to it. If we bring that same effort and focus the next game, it will be the same outcome."
I love the NBA. I cover it daily, nearly 24-hours a day. It's the first thing I read about when I wake up, usually the last thing I watch before I go to sleep. I'm invested in the NBA and defend it as a great product. I tell you this so you understand the severity of what I'm about to say.
Watching the Miami Heat play and then say things like this makes it easy to understand why so many people don't like the NBA. You simply don't have to give the kind of supreme effort that we've come to love in sports. The Heat could very well win the next three games and win the title and no one would bat an eye. This after they failed to try in an NBA Finals game.
This is not a Heat-only thing, ever. Don't get fooled. The Celtics coasted against the Hawks in 2008. The Lakers were notorious for playing down to their opponent in both 2009 and 2010. The Heat did seem genuinely engaged in 2012, and you saw the results. But now here we are again, back to what Miami looked like in 2011 for long stretches, simply not committing to the kind of efforts you expect from championship teams in the ideal.
This is a late-playoffs gripe, let's be clear. I don't mind guys mailing it in in Charlotte in February. I don't have a problem with the back-to-back disaster vs. Denver in the altitude off five hours sleep. But when an NBA title is on the line, especially for a team with historic expectations riding on the outcome, you do expect to hear something better than "we didn't try hard enough."
What on Earth could bring more effort? An easier schedule? More money? A cookie?
I can not imagine the kind of physical exertion that goes into playing in an NBA game. The intensity of muscle movement is incomprehensible to me. But in a life before writing about grown men bouncing a leather ball, I did know what actual work is. And when something is important to you, you'll throw your soul into it, you'll burn bridges, wreck your body, sacrifice the hardest parts of yourself for it. The Heat instead seem content to just shrug and say "Whoops, didn't play hard enough, that's a bummer."
Miami's killer instinct has long been suspect. They dominated a younger, more inexperienced Thunder team in 2012 to win their only championship of the Triad era. Now they face a Game 4 that could put them on the brink of elimination and essentially shut them down. Does this team have the fight to come back from a seemingly insurmountable 3-1 deficit? Considering they can't muster the willpower to fight their way into anything closer than a 36-point loss in Game 3, you have to think the answer is no.
Maybe they'll come back and respond in Game 4, maybe they won't. But to hear a team on this stage, with this kind of potential, throw up a self-critical and honest, but crushingly disappointing answer of "we didn't give good enough effort," it just makes you wonder.
How is a CBA ever going to fix a league with that kind of problem?
LeBum James saying "I will play better"
BINGO...!!!
