Let’s all make fun of the Miami Heat because some of the players cried after Sunday’s loss. What a bunch of babies, blah blah blah.
That’s a pretty small-minded view, mocking someone who’s been brought to tears by pain, even a pain caused by something so insignificant in this great big world as a loss on a basketball court. In mid-season, no less.
But this is what the Heat brought upon themselves when they assembled the greatest team money could buy. On the surface, the tears that coach Eric Spoelstra said “a couple of guys in the locker room” shed after a close loss to the Bulls are noble, a sign that even in this money-fueled era of sports, players still care about winning. But not if you’re the Heat. The day you brought self-involved Lebron James on board to join Dwayne Wade and started planning the parade route for your NBA championship celebration, you put nobility out of your reach. You lowered yourself.
Now people celebrate your every loss. And they mock your tears. While Spoelstra’s revelation about crying in the locker room drew the most attention at the postgame news conference, it was Wade who spoke the most perceptive words, even if said sarcastically: “The Miami Heat are exactly what everyone wanted: losing games. The world is better now because the Heat are losing.”
Wade exaggerates. The Heat’s woes do not make the world a better place. The horrors in the Middle East and in other corners of the globe have not been affected at all. But within the little world of the NBA, yes, watching the Heat lay burning puts a warm feeling in the hearts of fans. It’s like watching Alex Rodriguez fail to deliver in the clutch for the Yankees once again. Do you think anyone laughs spitefully when one of the Tigers grounds to short to end a ninth-inning threat?
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