This season wasn’t only pain. It was just mostly pain. Lots of great things happened this year and, today of all days, I think it’s best if we revisit them to raise our spirits a little.
We’re all looking to the future - and we should, it looks really bright for this franchise. But let’s take a moment to look back on this season past.
Here are my (mostly arbitrary) five favourite things about this season - what are yours?
5. Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh represent at all star weekend
Canada’s most regrettable export Justin Bieber may have mobilised his prepubescent sleeper cell into propelling Toronto’s Kyle Lowry into D. Wade’s starting spot, but the Heat still had two representatives in New York for All Star 2015.
Apparently the East fell to the West in the all-star game, but all eyes were on the weekend’s main event: the Shooting Stars challenge. Chris Bosh along with teammates Dominique Wilkins and Swin Cash won their third consecutive Shooting Stars competition - who’s three-peating now, San Antonio?
4. James Ennis defenestrates Rasual Butler
Fresh out of winning Australia’s NBL championship with the Perth Wildcats, offseason signing James Ennis leaps like a kangaroo to dunk it over Washington's Rasual Butler during the Heat’s very first game of the season. The early candidate for dunk of the year was a glimpse of the absurd athleticism Ennis brings to the team and although the remainder of his season wasn’t exactly setting rookie-of-the-year ballots ablaze, Heat fans continue to watch this promising young talent develop rapidly.
3. Heat Beat Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas Day
With Chris Bosh absent with injury, Wade (12/28 FG) and Deng (11/16) combined for 56 points in the best Christmas gift Santa could have left under my tree. The ten-point Heat win served as the Ghost of Basketball Present showing LeBron “Ebenezer Scrooge" James (30 pts, 9/16) just how many fucks are given over him leaving the franchise the previous summer. A joyous holiday indeed.
2. Heat trade Norris Cole, spare parts found in arena janitorial closet for Goran Dragic
Pat Riley solidified his bid for executive of the year at the trade deadline by convincing Phoenix to part with The Brothers Dragic in return for Norris Cole, Shawne Williams, Danny Granger and Justin Hamilton. I’ll miss Cole, and I’m glad he’s doing better with New Orleans, but when you have a chance to trade all the pieces you don’t want for the best guy on the trade block, you take it without hesitation.
Goran Dragic has yet to commit to the team past the end of this season, but he has given nothing but indications that he plans to do so. I hope the organisation makes like Philip J. Fry and tells him to shut up and take their money. Overpay him now and look like a genius when the salary cap goes up.
1. Hassan Whiteside
Hassan Whiteside is a young, seven-foot, shot-blocking center with athleticism, hands like a wide receiver and footwork that makes Erik Spoelstra look bad. How he was overlooked by the entire league and had to even step foot on a basketball court in Lebanon completely fucking baffles my mind.
Whiteside was signed by the Heat in late November, but hoops historians will pinpoint January 25th, 2015 as the exact date of this potential franchise big man’s “coming out party”. Wiltside scored 14 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked a ridiculous 12 shots in a win over the Chicago Bulls - and accomplished this triple-double in only 24 minutes of play. If that wasn’t enough, he’s locked-in for another year at a bargain-price contract before hitting free agency. He’ll show us just how much he’s worth next season, but for now, he is surely a legit contender for the Most Improved Player award.
Submitted April 11, 2015 at 10:16PM by BLITZCRUNK123 http://ift.tt/1yh9Sd2
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