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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

As The Heatles Turn



(Found this on Barstool Philly, great from Chris Webber)

I did not want to touch on the Miami Heat for the second time in three days. But, after they lost to the Portland Trail Blazers last night by the tune of 105-96, there was a very interesting quote from LeBron James. James said "Crazy thing is if we lose the rest of our games, we will still be in the playoffs." I posted this on Facebook, and the reaction was like if I made fun of Justin Bieber in front 100 teenage girls. The funny thing is LeBron is absolutely right no question about it, but it's nothing that should be said from their star player.



I posted this on Facebook because I believed it made the Heat look like a team, once again, that is mentally defeated. I wouldn't look that much into it, but Dwyane Wade shares the same sort of 'aww shucks' 'look at me' 'feel bad for us' persona. I called them mentally weak, which is an extreme comment for their careers, but right now, they have a losing mentality.

Jon, a Brewers Daily blogger and a passionate sports fan disagreed with me saying that quotes are overrated in sports. I thought about this for awhile today. Sometimes, yes, they do get overblown.  But I bet this is the first quote every journalist at that game uses in their story. Quotes add to the reasons why we love sports.  We always look for nuggets from the best in the business like LBJ, Brett Favre, Alex Rodriguez, and Kobe Bryant. Everyone hopes for the rants from the various players and coaches to quote for the next month or even year. A lot of the people covering the Heat need to make these inferences because if they don't, the radio will or the fans will. Quotes revolve around our sports life and other aspects like politics, and entertainment (e.g. Charlie Sheen).

Jon also mentioned that this true statement by LeBron is fine because 'seeding doesn't matter'. I had my O RLY?! face on and went to do some research on the topic.  Here's how it breaks down as to what seed represents the NBA's  Eastern Conference in the last 30 years.

1 seed: 18/30- 60 percent of the time
2 seed 7/30- 23 percent
3 seed 4/30- 13 percent
4 seed 1/30-   3 percent
5 seed never
6 seed never
7 seed never
8 seed 1/30-  3 percent (the lockout year as an fyi)

To say seeding doesn't matter is false. There is an obvious correlation to teams needing to have at least one home playoff series, and increased success, if they have two or more home series. You can say the Heat do not have fans and all of that jazz about Miami, but being home means not living out of a suitcase amongst other things. I am beyond interested to see what happens with the red-hot Los Angeles Lakers coming to South Beach on Thursday. The Heat need to win, the Lakers want to make another statement, should be a good one.

-Charlie.