THE MIAMI HEAT’S NEW ACTION HERRO
James Johnson has yet to rejoin the Heat since failing his conditioning requirements. But when he returns, the team is ready to welcome him with open arms. ‘When he comes back, it’s all behind us and we just move forward,’ team president Pat Riley said.
More coverage of Tuesday night’s game on 18A
Forward James Johnson is still away from the Heat as he works to get to his pre-set weight goal from the team, but Heat president Pat Riley is ready to welcome him back once Johnson meets those conditioning requirements.
“It’s just something that had to be done. Now he realizes it, and I realize it,” Riley said Monday evening at the opening of the Miami Heat Sports Medicine Center in Coral Gables, a state-of-the-art facility in partnership with Baptist Health.
“It’s not going to take away from the team and it’s not going to take away from him once he reaches those conditioning requirements. He’s already almost there again. So I think in very short notice, I’m going to turn this over to Erik [Spoelstra]. And it’s between Erik and him now.”
Johnson missed the entirety of training camp last week and Sunday’s Red, White & Pink intrasquad scrimmage, and has yet to rejoin the team after being informed
Sept. 30 that he would not be permitted to practice
until he reached a certain weight.
The Heat begins its fivegame preseason schedule Tuesday against the Spurs at AmericanAirlines Arena, and Johnson is also expected to be unavailable for that contest.
When asked if Johnson’s latest setback was a letdown, Riley said: “No. I’ve been through too many in 52 years. And it’s just part of it. It’s a very, very difficult ask. For some young players it’s very easy, because of their constitution and they won’t have to feel this until they’re 30. And there’s a point of diminishing returns. When he comes back, it’s all behind us and we just move forward.”
Before Riley’s comments Monday, the Heat had declined to discuss the issue beyond this Tuesday morning statement: “The Miami Heat announced today that James Johnson will miss the beginning of camp because he fell short of our conditioning requirements. Once he fulfills and maintains those requirements, he will rejoin the team.”
Johnson, who’s entering the third season of a fouryear, $60 million contract, is not being fined or suspended because of the issue.
Before the conditioning issue, there was optimism that a full healthy offseason would lead to a rejuvenated Johnson. And there is still hope within the organization that Johnson can help the Heat this season once he returns to the team.
Johnson missed the first 15 games of last season because of May 2018 sports hernia surgery, and eventually lost his spot in the starting lineup and at one point even fell out of the rotation. He finished with averages of 7.8 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 43.3 percent from the field and 33.6 percent from from three-point range in 55 games (33 starts).
Johnson has served as one of the Heat’s team captains in each of the past two seasons.
Riley spoke in April about “tightening the screws” on the Heat’s “culture.” Requiring players to report to training camp at a certain weight is just a part of that effort.
“It’s a lot of things. It isn’t just that, believe me,” Riley said. “It’s across the board, the whole organization, basketball operations and everything. It’s just taking things for granted, letting things slide, being a little bit late, not being on time. I told you what I hated, I hate complaining, gossiping and guys that don’t work hard. I have a hard time with players that don’t tuck their shirts in. It’s very unprofessional. It’s all of these things. Maybe I’m a little bit too picky. But I just believe in uber-professionalism. That’s all.”
On the Heat’s five-day
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training camp at Keiser University in West Palm Beach, which closed Saturday, Riley said: “It’s the beginning. I thought it was a great week. I thought Erik organized the camp very efficiently for just five days. It’s not like it used to be. I mean, back in the day, there would be 15 players, three coaches and two trainers. We had like 20 people total in camp. It was two-a-days, practice in the morning, practice in the evening. Not a whole lot of stuff in between.
The organization part of it, with Spo, we had 70 people up in training camp. And you have to do that today. That’s just the way it is. I thought everything went off very well and the players got a lot out of it.”
When asked about the
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effect four-time All-Star wing Jimmy Butler has had on the Heat through one week of practices, Riley said: “I think the one thing that he has brought, he has really brought an awareness to another level of what he has to do. Not just coming into another normal camp with his team. This is a new team, new situation. The history that he might have had in the past, based on how I have witnessed what he has done, had to be bogus. But it had to be real, too. Or maybe he was just challenging people. However, I thought he has had a perfect week. Actually, went to a point where he was so hyper to a point where he became sort of exhausted by the end of the week by trying to make everything right. I love it. I think he’s going to be great for us. I just do.”
As for Butler waking up at 3:30 a.m. for an early workout, Riley noted there will have to be an adjustment to his routine when the season begins.
“That’s his deal. That’s what he’s done on his own,” Riley said. “It isn’t anything new for him. It was new for our guys and some of our guys challenged him and said,
‘Well, I can be there too,’ which is great. But I think when you get into the regular season and you have a normal schedule, you don’t get home by midnight and your schedule changes. So I’m sure he’ll adapt to that.”
The Miami Heat Sports ●
Medicine Center “houses most of the Institute’s orthopedic specialties under one roof, including an ambulatory surgery center on the top floor.
The new multispecialty, four-story hub combines advanced technology with world-renowned orthopedic experts.”
Heat team physician Harlan Selesnick was at Monday’s event with Riley.