Heat reopen their practice facility.
‘Competitive juices’ flow as workout sessions resume
It was a moment that felt familiar, but also totally different.
The Miami Heat opened their practice facility at AmericanAirlines Arena on Wednesday for the first time since mid-March, with players allowed to work out individually, with no more than four players present per session.
“It’s been so long since we’ve had the opportunity to smile collectively like that, even if it was just a small group,” Heat captain Udonis Haslem said after his workout.
“Once you step on the court, it’s like riding a bike. Your competitive juices get going. You kind of just fall back into your routine and it’s kind of like you never left.”
But Haslem and his teammates did leave, the team’s practice facility shuttered for nearly two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It felt great at the beginning, started off making all my shots, everything felt good, like riding a bike,” Haslem said. “Toward the end, then I got a little fatigued. My wind was good, but definitely legs get fatigued, no matter how hard you work out or what you do. You can never simulate game legs and getting up shots and repetitions like that.
“Had the Billy Madison; I couldn’t do nothing at the end. But that was ex
pected. It’s not every day that we take this much time off.”
Even with the attendance limitations per session, Haslem said there still were bonding moments.
“It feels good to have a couple of guys around,” he said. “I was talking a little crap and getting the competitive juices flowing from the 3-point line and just getting guys going, other guys smiling.”
The NBA began allowing such workouts Friday, with the Heat receiving permission for the sessions from MiamiDade County, a requirement under the NBA policy.
The Heat will not announce which players are participating because the workouts are voluntary.
All but three of the Heat’s 17 players under contract are in South Florida and available for the workouts. The exceptions are forward Andre Iguodala, Jimmy Butler and Solomon Hill, who returned to their California homes after the NBA’s March 11 shutdown.
The sessions on the practice court that sits alongside Biscayne Bay in no way replicate the Heat’s traditionally grueling workouts, with players limited to individual work at their own basket, with their own sanitized ball.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, per NBA guidelines, is not allowed to participate, with his aides running the sessions. Twelve feet of spacing is required during the sessions. Masks and gloves are required for those assisting, with players required to wear masks when not drilling.
The Heat have scheduled three such days of work per week.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, on a video conference with owners, indicated that a decision on whether to resume the 2019-20 season could come within two to four weeks, the closest the league has offered as a timetable since the shutdown. Restarting beyond July could complicate plans to open the 2020-21 season in December.
The league has indicated a willingness to play through the summer, and perhaps into the fall, to complete the season, if safely feasible.
Informal polling of players has indicated a preference to return to complete this season.
The expectation is of conducting resumed games in a “campus” type of setting without fans, with the Disney complex outside of Orlando and Las Vegas mentioned as possible sites.
Such a return would be preceded by a training camp that could run three weeks.
Only selected teams have been testing for COVID-19, in communities where there is ample supply. The league likely would require such daily testing during a resumption of play.