In the world of sports, acting like you have been there before is the only way to operate. For other organizations, it is a few words thrown together by an old man.
The Miami Heat have been there every day on and off the court. Jimmy was on the receiving end of a dirty play during the third game of the Eastern Conference Finals when he was tripped by a player who tried to foul him.
During the Golden State Warriors-Memphis Grizzlies series, there was a similar incident a couple of weeks before the game. Ja Morant went down with a knee injury after Jordan Poole grabbed his leg. Both fouls were more awkward than anything.
Memphis confirmed after the Morant play that they had not been there before. The Ja knee injury became the biggest story for the next two days and became personal both on and off the court. In Memphis, a local TV weatherman went so far that he used a slur at Draymond Green during the series. Memphis fans and media immediately jumped online and began a dirty play campaign, advocating for Poole to be punished the same way for causing Gary Payton II's elbow injury.
I don't care what anyone says. The dirty part was when he took a swing at his head and never went after the ball. He may not have intended to hurt GP2, but his intent was to send a message. Although his team advanced, Brooks was able to eliminate Payton.
We haven't heard much about Pritchard's play outside of Miami because it wasn't a big deal. It is called playoff basketball. The world stopped when the Heat's star went down, but they kept moving. Both Morant and Butler have had knee injuries this season. The love-tap fouls didn't do any damage that wasn't already present.
The Heat have been here before, so it's nothing to them. The current Miami squad is playing in the conference finals for the second year in a row. And advanced to the NBA Finals. The Heat have won three NBA Finals and appeared in six. This is part of the process of getting to the top.
This all showed how new this franchise and its fan base are. The dirty play narrative was fed into by the head coach. Ja has the greater upside, so no one is comparing him to Morant in terms of ability on the court. If Morant doesn't shift his style a bit, they will likely continue.
Hopefully, this isn't the case, but we've seen this act before with small guards like D- Wade and Allen Iverson. It's impressive for a few years until the injuries start to pile up. It is not sustainable to play at a high level in the long term.
It wasn't shocking to see how fans reacted to the play on Morant, but for the franchise itself to feed into and have this be a topic of discussion for days was ridiculous. On the flip side, Miami has not said much about the play, and it is almost like nothing happened. Jimmy had a bad knee and no one saw anything wrong with his play. It is interesting to see the reaction of one NBA team to another.
When an organization is hungry for any resemblance of winning and has never come close to that, they will do everything they can to make that happen. The route didn't work for Memphis this time around, but there is always next year.
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