Heat score 54 reflecting Pat Rileys leadership
So what’s worse than all the Andrew Bynum hype? The 2006 NBA Champion Miami Heat getting slaughtered by the Toronto Raptors last night 96 to 54. That’s right it’s not a misprint, the Heat only scored 54 points in the entire game!
It was obvious the Heat where headed for a downward spiral after Coach Riley gave DWade the rest of the season off. Then Riles decided to send a nice message to the rest of team by skipping out on a few games to go scout out new talent. If you were a Miami Heat player, would you be motivated after those two moves? After your coach, and not just any coach but The Coach Pat Riley who led the Lakers through Showtime and delivered a championship in Miami decides that the season is over with several months of games left to play. A move that demonstrated the complete lack of confidence in the Miami Heat squad’s ability and talents.
Players should be professional and show up to play that’s what they get paid millions of dollars to do. Basketball though is a team sport and through trust the team must follow and believe in its leaders The Coach in this case Pat Riley and The Franchise Player in this case Dwayne Wade completely and undeniably let down and destroyed all confidence and trust this team had in each other and this organization.
54 points in an entire NBA game is an embarrassing output for a group of individuals considered to be professional basketball players that play in the world’s greatest basketball league. In the end the Miami Heat players played as expected under the motivation and circumstances. This loss is not a reflection of the Miami Heat player’s talent but of Pat Riley’s ability to lead. Anyone can lead a team to victory with a Dwade/Shaq combo, the question that Pat Riley has answered through his actions with a definite and clear NO is: Can Pat Riley lead a team without a lopsided superstar advantage?
Of course not… Riles is too good to waste his time on that.
Leave a Reply