I’m not going to re-hash everything that led up to the Miami Heat becoming the NBA’s bad guys. We all know that the further along the Heat went into the playoffs, the more non-Heat fans were sweating it out, rooting for anyone to beat them.
But of course, that’s just the fans. I mean, we’re the ones with the irrational emotional attachments to team colors. We’re the ones who take things like player movement too personally. Players, especially players in today’s era of free agency, shared agents, and shared endorsements, don’t experience the same kind of schadenfreude fans do.
Did guys around the league enjoy the fact that the Heat didn’t win the championship?:
“Oh yeah, great amount of joy out of it. Plus, for me, they say nice guys, good guys finish last. But Dallas, they just had a slew of great guys and veterans on their team that made for just a great team. It wasn’t just two, three, four guys on the team, like Miami I kind of felt it was. Around the league, it was kind of a consensus that guys were happy.”
That was Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves talking on WFAN. And that’s actually fairly amazing to me. I actually would’t think a lot of players cared that much about who won it all once their team was out of it. Maybe this shows a little contempt towards LeBron James and how he carries himself. Maybe they just appreciate Dirk Nowitzki. Or maybe they are just happy that the little master plan to get three stars together and expect a title didn’t work out.
Whatever it is, it’s funny to read. Players being happy to see the Heat lose really cements Miami as the bad guy. They might as well come out wearing black cowboy hats or change their logo to Cobra. Actually, I like the Cobra thing better, because like the cartoon, they couldn’t hit a shot when it mattered most.
