The In-Season Tournament courses are bad enough. Instead of just creating a new logo, the NBA is trying to blind its customers with color pollution. At least they are only in use for a few months. The City edition courts are there all season and the theme that the Miami heat what we are dealing with is narcissism.
Their City Edition jerseys said “Heat Culture” on the front. The organization believes that they can maximize their talent better than the others in the NBA because of their culture of toughness and attention to detail. With rosters not as highly touted as the teams they beat in the playoffs the past two seasons, fans and media will sometimes lean on that as an explanation for the success. An explanation that ignores the injuries to several key players in both the 2022 and 2023 playoffs, which allowed the Heat matchup advantages to be taken advantage of.
While the sweaters are annoyingly smug, at least the idea was creative. However, the court is over the top.
![Image for article titled Enough with heat culture](https://i.kinja-img.com/image/upload/c_fit,q_60,w_645/ffabd13aafe6a183b106556f85968e69.jpg)
The Heat posted a description of their “culture” on the court. It’s basically Notre Dame’s “Play Like a Champion Today” locker room sign, but in paragraph form. Printed in the painted area is the Heat’s definition of their organizational culture. Phrases like “hardest working,” “most conditioned,” and adjectives like “meanest” and “dirtiest” are used to explain why the Heat believe they run a tighter ship than the rest of the NBA.
The Heat deserve a lot of credit for what they have accomplished in 35 years as a franchise. Of the four expansion teams of the late 1980s – the Heat, Orlando magic, Charlotte HornetsAnd The Minnesota Timberwolves – only the Heat have won an NBA championship – three to be exact. They have been to the NBA Finals seven times. The Magic have been to the Finals twice, the Hornets have won a total of four playoff series and the Timberwolves have won two.
In a fraction of the time that now exists, the heat has taken over New York Knicks as a franchise. if it wasn’t for Stephen Curry, they would have done the same thing with the Warriors of the Golden State. Those are two of the founders of the competition.
Whatever pride the Miami Heat have in their organization, it is well-deserved. But putting that pride into words is a stretch. We all get it, the Heat have hard practices, Erik Spoelstra is Pat Riley’s best student, and Jimmy Butler is so tough that this is the team he wanted to play for and ended up getting traded there.
Applause for the fact that the Heat have a competent organization, but I don’t need to be reminded of that on every possession. They can keep their self-congratulatory athletic mantras to themselves. Save that for new players when they receive the welcome package.
The rest of us don’t need to see your company’s core values as Bam Adebayo caught in an alley.