MIAMI — There was a time when Culture wasn’t a jersey, wasn’t a court design, wasn’t more marketing than meaning.
There was a time when Culture held such touchstone value that it practically stood as corporate secret at 601 Biscayne Boulevard.
It was about the aura, about sacred regard. It made Culture special. It made the Miami Heat unique.
That is why the latest rollout of the final variety of jerseys the Heat wear this season — the black-and-pastel Vice Nights version that debuts at Wednesday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Kaseya Center — comes with meaning.
Because there will be no Culture jerseys this season.
No Culture court to remind of “the hardest-working, best conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA”.
“That campaign is over,” said Michael McCullough, the team’s Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. “And now we are into Vice.”
It was time.
Over the past two years, be it because of the jerseys or the court, it had become clear that Erik Spoelstra was over constantly being asked to define the team’s culture. Courteously, the Heat coach spoke of how the public platform had become somewhat overblown.
“It’s something we believe in. It’s for us. It’s not for everybody,” he often said of the team’s culture.
Or, as center Bam Adebayo has said, “It’s like if you’re not in it, you wouldn’t understand. That’s the thing about Heat Culture. If you aren’t a part of it, then you don’t know.”
So, no, not easily transferable to a jersey, a court, a T-shirt.
To a degree, there arguably stood no better example of the team’s culture (we now can again move comfortably into lower case) than Duncan Robinson, whose relentless work ethic and regard for the Heat’s values created a takeoff point for an enduring NBA career that now plays on with the Detroit Pistons.
“They just have standards that they want to live by,” was how Robinson summed up the team’s culture during an appearance on The Young Man and The Three podcast, giving credit to Heat President Pat Riley.
Yet by the end of his Heat run, even Robinson recognized that Heat Culture (in its capitalized form) had become bastardized.
“I will say, and obviously — I love the organization and I have benefited from it a lot. We had some great runs and great times — I will say, when they started to sort of shift into like a marketing thing, I think it lost a little bit,” Robinson said during that podcast appearance in April.
“Then when we had like the Culture jerseys and then on the court, I think it just like ripened us up for people to just take shots. I’m not saying it was bad marketing.”
It wasn’t. And there remains a Court Culture apparel line that does not nearly as much blur the line between apparel and a value system.
But sometimes too much becomes too much, as Jimmy Butler, now with the Golden State Warriors, noted.
“I’m not saying it in a bad way, but I think it’s a little bit overused talking about the Heat Culture,” he said. “It is a great organization. But I think a large part of that culture is you get guys that buy into a winning mindset.
“Whenever you have really good players, you can name it whatever you want to name it.”
To appreciate how the Heat’s basketball side not only values its values but also protects its principles, consider a few years back when 10 of Spoelstra’s core values were left posted on a video monitor during a media period in the locker room.
To an outsider, the talking points might have come off as pithy, items such as celebrating a teammate’s success.
The Heat were not happy any of it became public. Why? Because these were their values, standards for their success, not intended for public consumption.
With success comes curiosity, with curiosity comes interest, with interest comes marketing. Few do that better than the Heat, with Riley often acknowledging as much, mentioning McCullough by name.
But there also has to be balance.
As one member of the Heat staff confided, “We got that creed. It was never talked about. It was just how we went out and the way we carried ourselves. Marketing turned it into selling, in which it was a good selling point. But it becomes oversaturated and it becomes just a saying instead of something you live by.”
So now, once again, Vice … but not Culture.
Sometimes all you need is to know who you are.
And sometimes it is better to keep it that way.
IN THE LANE
HAS A KNACK: Not only wasn’t Nikola Jokic‘s triple-double Wednesday night against the Heat an outlier, but the Denver Nuggets are now 7-0 against the Heat when Jokic has a triple-double. With his 33 points, 16 assists and 15 rebounds, Jokic made it 71 times in his NBA career reaching a triple-double before the start of the fourth quarter. The game marked the seventh time Jokic recorded at least 30 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists. The only player with more such 30-15-15s in league history has been Oscar Robertson, with 11. Jokic now has more such games than the next two players combined (Wilt Chamberlain and Luka Dončić have had two each). This time the Heat tried zone against Jokic; didn’t work. “He was made to play against different defenses,” Denver coach David Adelman said afterwards. “He has a feel for space that I’ve never seen before. So whether it’s a zone or a matchup zone or man defense, whether they’re doubling them or not, his comfort level with how he sees the floor is second to none.”
HE SAID IT: Sometimes the ultimate compliment can come when an opponent isn’t even trying to compliment. That was the case after the Heat turned up their high-octane offense in Monday night’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, seemingly delivering a bit of whiplash. “They were just flying,” Clippers guard Bradley Beal said afterward. “They were all over the place offensively. They didn’t call any plays; they just were just kind of putting their head down and going.” Then there was respect in victory on Wednesday night from Nuggets forward Payton Watson about the Heat’s style. “They just play super fast and super free. I’m actually a big fan of their offense, the way they move the ball and the way they get everybody involved,” he said.
COUNTER-CULTURE: With the Heat heading in a different direction with their up-tempo offense, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said his team is going in the opposition direction. The common thread in the shifts? Former Heat forward Jimmy Butler. “We found the balance once we got Jimmy,” Kerr said of last February’s trade, “playing with a little more deliberateness and spacing once Jimmy got the ball. He’s one of the best iso players in the league.” And, yes, the Warriors are bending to Butler’s age, 36. “The rules the NBA gives us in terms of which games guys can rest, which games they can’t, that’s something we are really having to dive into now that the season’s going and rolling.” Kerr said, according to the Bay Area News Group. “It’s not easy, but we’ll do it collaboratively.”
ANOTHER SHOT: Less than three weeks after being waived by the Heat at the end of camp in a move to get back under the luxury tax, Precious Achiuwa has resurfaced with the Sacramento Kings, part of a piecemeal mix-and-match roster that includes everything from Russell Westbrook to Doug McDermott to Dario Saric to Dennis Schroder. “You have Hall of Famers on the team, guys that have great reputations around the league, they’ve been around, All-Star and All-NBA guys. Just coming in, like I said, making those guys’ jobs easier and helping us get wins,” Achiuwa said. Based on the Heat’s position against the tax and based on the uncertainty with what will happen with Terry Rozier‘s salary, Achiuwa largely was caught in a no-win situation with the Heat on his non-guaranteed contract. “I was just waiting,” he said of the period after being waived. “Usually stuff like this, something is always going to present itself.”
NUMBER
6. Times that the Heat will play the same opponent in consecutive games this season, starting with the Monday and Wednesday home games against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Heat also will have consecutive home games Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 against the Chicago Bulls, and March 3 and March 5 against the Brooklyn Nets. The Heat will have consecutive road games March 25 and March 27 against the Cavaliers, and April 7 and April 9 against the Toronto Raptors. In addition there will be consecutive games against the Knicks at New York on Friday and then home against the Knicks on Nov. 17.