The Miami Heat have been described as a model organization. But is their infamous locker-room culture all it’s cracked up to be?
According to The Athletic’s Anthony Slater, the answer may not be what you think.
Speaking on the “NBA Show,” Slater and his co-hosts Anthony Slater and Tim Cato discussed the reality of being a member of the Miami Heat, and how it can drain players who stick around for too long.
Amick: Tim [Cato] talks about Heat Culture and what do we know about Heat Culture? I won’t put a name on them, but players you’ve spoken to in the past about how year one of Heat Culture is the best of your life: you grow as a player and-
Slater: Basically you should only spend one year in Miami. You get in unbelievable shape, you learn really good work habits, you get a lot of good lessons on professionalism of the game but by year two you want to get out.
Cato: I think that it gets built up in ways that are not fully honest to what it is I think.
Amick: ..I think here, partly what you’re running into here is there’s a reason that Jimmy Butler and Tom Thibodeau have always been two peas in a pod: On the coaching side, what do we say about Thibs? Year two, year three, it gets tough. What do we say about the Heat? Year two, year three, it gets tough. What do we say about Jimmy? Year two, year three, it gets tough. So you just have a lot of pressure in that Heat locker room that’s easy to predict.
These comments come amid some major struggles for the team. At 4-6 in their last 10 games, they’ve lost some major ground and are only a game ahead of the competition for the East’s top seed.
More concerning is the altercation that played out last week, when Jimmy Butler, Erik Spoelstra, and Udonis Haslem got into it on the sidelines.
Despite what they say to the media, cracks are starting to show and not everyone is convinced that the Miami Heat are as much a paradise as they try to make it seem.
