Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Players continue to hold court
Teammates strengthen bonds as offseason is just beginning
MIAMI — For a team that didn’t make the playoffs, if you didn’t know better, you’d think the Miami Heat were headed to the NBA Finals.
Because there they are, regularly at AmericanAirlines Arena, getting up shots, running drills, or else holding workout sessions off site, such as last week’s spin class that included Hassan Whiteside, James Johnson, Rodney McGruder, Willie Reed and others.
Sometimes not letting go can be a fault. For a team that rallied from 11-30 at midseason to 41-41, it seemingly is the only way to work through the frustration of missing the postseason by a tiebreaker. Even five weeks after the fact. “It feels like right before practice, is what it feels like,” McGruder said of continuing to lace ’em up in the locker room and then head upstairs to the practice court at 601 Biscayne Boulevard. “Guys coming in early, getting their lifts in, getting the work on the court before practice starts, that’s what it feels like . . . but practice isn’t going on.”
While there are staffers alongside to assist, there is no formal whistle from coach Erik Spoelstra to prepare for what’s next. That won’t come for another four months.
The sessions are neither required nor particularly encouraged, with the staff recognizing the need to decompress.
And yet, they rise again, jumper after
jumper, barbell after barbell, from seated to standing on their spin cycles.
“It’s still a feeling of like the season’s still going on, because of the hard work the guys are putting in right now,” McGruder, said, having run across everyone from team captain Udonis Haslem to impending free agent Dion Waiters to 3-point specialist Wayne Ellington.
“You’ve got guys like U.D. coming into the gym that’s a 14-year vet, so guys are just preparing differently,” McGruder said. “Wayne is in here working hard. James, Tyler [Johnson], Dion’s in here. It’s everybody. Willie. Okaro [White]. Everybody’s been in the gym.
“I asked the [support] guys. They said this is the first time that this many people have stayed. They said, ‘We really haven’t seen this many people around.’ So that just goes to show a work ethic that these guys are trying to put in themselves.”
It is impressive, and somewhat insane. James Johnson, Haslem, Waiters, Reed, Ellington, even McGruder and White can become free agents this summer. There is no guarantee this bonding will necessarily be part of an enduring relationship.
And yet they check in regularly, thumbprints opening the locker room doors and allowing group access to where there hasn’t been an official practice session since April 12.
This is not their time. Only they insist it is.
“It’s special,” Reed said. “That just speaks volumes to the team we had this year. We have guys that want to work. And when have guys like that, it doesn’t matter what time of the year it is; you want to get better at working on your craft, because you want to be able to provide for the team in the upcoming season.
“I love seeing those guys out there. I love going up there and working out, and seeing guys working on their game. It’s been really inspiring to me. So it helps you when you’re working out, as well.”
The impromptu sessions come within view of the entire coaching staff, their offices behind glass panels and blinds alongside the practice court, the bouncing of balls creating a familiar cadence just steps from Pat Riley’s bayfront office.
In May. Not for pay. Not for playoff shares.
“This,” Haslem said, “is the first time I’ve been in the arena this early in the offseason in a long time. … We make sure we put time aside to spend time with each other. And we still make sure that we continue to strengthen that bond.”
In a matter of days, only two teams will still be preparing for games that count, most likely the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors about to go a third consecutive round in the NBA Finals.
And yet out of view, in an arena that effectively is closed for the season, another team continues to offer sweat equity, forged fellowship replacing playoff payoff.
“We weren’t lying when we say that,” Tyler Johnson said of 2016-17 creating an enduring bond. “We had built a good relationship with this team and, so, guys enjoy spending time with each other. So, yeah, it’s just friendship.”