Coach, players roll with ‘Miami Vice’ theme
MIAMI — It remains unknown whether Erik Spoelstra will coach Thursday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings in a silk shirt, but the Miami Heat coach said Wednesday he embraced the “Vice” jerseys the team will unveil at that game.
“I love it. I absolutely love it,” Spoelstra said of going with the neon pastel hues. “It was one of my favorite TV shows growing up. I had a totally different view on Miami before I moved here, and that was my perception of it.
“I think it’s awesome. If I had any guts, I would show up in a Miami Vice suit. I don’t. I don’t think I can grow a mustache in time. But I think it’s brilliant. It captures so much of the ’80s culture of Miami and the players can have fun with it.”
And then he turned back into coach mode.
“But it’s still about competition,” he said. “This doesn’t get in the way of it at all. That’s what makes our organization cool.”
Forward Udonis Haslem, at 37, stands as one of the few players with recollections of the “Miami Vice” TV series, which ran from 1984 to 1990. But he said because what’s old is often new again that there might be teammates, perhaps Josh Richardson, who surprise.
“The fashion,” he said, “all those things do is recycle. They come back around. J-Rich is wearing the braids now. I’ve been wearing the braids since the early ’90s, man. All these styles and everything just recycles, man.”