Atlanta Hawks: Top 5 Rivalries Entering 2015-16
By John Buhler
. Previous: . Miami Heat. 2. team. 110.
Even before The Decision, I never liked the Miami Heat. Not once. I remember watching the Atlanta Hawks routinely struggle in their first several years at Philips Arena. Just about every game I went to as a kid was when the Miami Heat came to town. Atlanta would stick around in most of those games, that was until Alonzo Mourning or Tim Hardaway, Sr. took over and that was it for the Heat to come out on top.
I didn’t like the 2006 NBA Championship team of theirs, but I respected it. Dwyane Wade carried that team and became an NBA Legend because of it. Then The Decision happened and my dislike for the Miami Heat became hate.
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Miami bought themselves four straight NBA Finals appearances because LeBron James and Chris Bosh decided it was cool to form a Big Three in South Beach and all parity in the NBA completely evaporated. No knock on any of those three future Basketball Hall of Famers, but I see forming big threes through free agency as a shortcut to winning a championship. While you still have to navigate deep playoff runs to win championships, buying big threes shies away from traditional team building concepts and rewards luck over hard work.
Did I enjoy the Heat’s poor 2014-15 season which ended with Pat Riley‘s team picking in the Top 10 of the 2015 NBA Draft? Certainly, but I don’t expect the Miami Heat to stay down for long. I think their starting five of Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng, Chris Bosh, and Hassan Whiteside is one of the best in the NBA.
Miami should challenge Atlanta and Washington for the Southeastern Division Crown in 2016 and should definitely find themselves back in the playoffs in 2016. A potential first or second-round meeting between the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat should only bolster this growing Southeastern Divisional rivalry.
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