SPORTS COLUMNIST

Greg Cote has been a Herald sports columnist known for his wit and sharp insight since 1995, after previously covering the Dolphins, University of Miami football and major events including Super Bowls, the World Cup and Barcelona Olympics. Greg and his infamous 'Upset Bird' present the ever-popular NFL predictions page every Friday during football season.

E-mail Greg at gcote@miamiherald.com.

GREG COTE'S RANDOM EVIDENCE BLOG

Nothing personal, Indiana, but you aren't what we wanted; plus predict Heat-Pacers series. Poll. Vote; also, Spurs take G1, Marlins win & more

Top Story

Greg Cote: Knicks would have been spicier matchup for Miami Heat

Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) tries to maintain possession while being defended by New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony (7) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Nov. 2, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)

Miami Heat players have been steadfastly neutral in claiming no preference as they waited for Indiana and New York to figure out which would play the underdog in the NBA’s upcoming Eastern Conference finals. Confident champions do not deign to worry about who’s next; they leave the worrying to opponents. The lion who runs the jungle does not much care if he is feasting on zebra or antelope, after all.

Florida Sports Buzz | Heat players keep adding weapons

IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: Dwyane Wade’s heroics help Miami Heat in comeback

Welcome back, Dwyane Wade.
IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: Miami Heat’s playoff health tied to Dwyane Wade

Most of the unusually low numbers from this game should delight Heat fans. Those numbers stunk up this city Monday night and all but required the Bulls arena to be immediately fumigated following this NBA playoff series Game 4 here. Those numbers were Chicago’s meager 65 points scored on abysmal 25.7 percent shooting — both owing largely to a Miami defense that is that good, yes.
Random evidence of a cluttered mind

Bulls full of technicals and ejections but lack class

Any impartial observer who has watched and heard this Heat-Bulls playoff series would have to agree that the behavior of the underdogs suggests that Chicago’s famous nickname should be tweaked just a tad.
In my opinion

Greg Cote: Physicality of raging Bulls is being met

Imagine the National Guard deployed to militarize the perimeter of the basketball court in the expectation of more mayhem. Uniformed police officers with nightsticks are serving as the game’s officials. The whole spectacle plays out surrounded by an octagon cage.
In My Opinion

Greg Cote: Sense of order restored after Miami Heat’s Game 2 blowout win

It was a brutal night full of elbows and animus, but a thing of desperate beauty through the prism of downtown Miami. The basketball game was a graffiti spray of nine technical fouls, a flagrant foul and two ejections but looked like a masterpiece to Heat fans. So it figures that the one most memorable play of Heat-Bulls Game 2 here Wednesday night was not about elegance or art but about power flexing itself with an angry sneer.
IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: Miami Heat’s playoff run just became interesting

OK, the playoffs just got interesting fast for the Heat — fast as a punch to the gut that you don’t expect.
Greg Cote | In My Opinion

Greg Cote: With LeBron James, the best is yet to come

“Don’t take this for granted,” Erik Spoelstra was saying Saturday, pinned against a wall by a semi-circle crush of media on one end of the Heat’s practice court. On the far end, LeBron James, last man on the floor, was still working, shooting, reaching higher, the basketball’s staccato bounce echoing through the gym.
Random Evidence of a Cluttered Mind

Miami Heat continuing to play the playoff waiting game

Doesn’t it seem like forever since the Heat last played a playoff game in quickly sweeping Milwaukee in the first round?
IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: Miami Heat’s toughest opponent right now might be boredom

It is cute the things we do to manufacture drama in a Heat postseason that is lacking in that because, well, because Miami is so good that even pretending the NBA champions might not repeat — let alone that they would be seriously threatened in the early rounds — takes some real imagination.
Greg Cote | In My Opinion

Greg Cote: Reaction to Jason Collins shows bigotry will always lose

The importance and value in what Jason Collins has done — beyond his own soul-freeing catharsis — showed itself swiftly and starkly as word spread across social media. America finally had its first active athlete in a major professional team sport reveal himself as gay. He wasn’t a big star. No matter. Eventually, someone had to stand up. On Monday, someone stood up.
Random evidence of a cluttered mind

Greg Cote: Busy Miami Dolphins not ready to concede South Florida market to Heat

LeBron James and the champion Heat are rolling impressively through the NBA playoffs, but it was the Dolphins dominating local conversation this week — the Dolphins, who once owned the Miami sports market and are acting like they mean to win it back.
IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: Onus is on Dion Jordan, and also on GM Jeff Ireland

Do we trust the Dolphins yet? More to the point, do we trust general manager Jeff Ireland?
IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: Nostalgic performance for Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade

There was this one particular little burst here Tuesday night for Dwyane Wade.
In my opinion

Greg Cote: Drum roll ... time for annual NFL Mock Draft

I have been doing my annual NFL Mock Draft in The Miami Herald for a long time. How long? When I started this, the Dolphins had recently played in a Super Bowl. THAT long! As I recall, the printing press had not quite been invented yet, so those earliest first-round selections were etched onto stone tablets that were then heaved onto front lawns with a thud.
Greg Cote | In My Opinion

Greg Cote: Milwaukee simply no match for Miami

Is this where Heat fans were supposed to modestly feign concern because their team’s playoff run began Sunday night with a victory that was somewhat close for a little while? Do we now pretend this might be a competitive series, after all, because the Bucks’ opening loss was, for some of the night, relatively speaking, not entirely embarrassing?
In My Opinion

Greg Cote: For Miami Heat, its biggest opponent is history

Udonis Haslem, eyewitness, was talking this week about his Heat teammate, LeBron James. He was talking more broadly about the phenomenon of how an athlete, if he is great enough, rare enough, can seem to reach a mountaintop and then somehow keep climbing.
Random Evidence of a Cluttered Mind

Heat certainty, Dolphins uncertainty head big week

Random Evidence is back just in time after a week’s hiatus. I don’t know if Miami’s two most popular teams can intersect on the calendar with much more combined excitement than the defending champion Heat starting the NBA playoffs the same week the Dolphins — finally seen as ascending, as imbued with some momentum — partake of the NFL Draft.
Greg Cote | In My Opinion

Greg Cote: With regular season over, Miami Heat’s legacy to be shaped by what happens next

The Heat finished its record-setting regular season here Wednesday night, a conga line of myriad firsts and bests in this 25th franchise year, and South Florida danced to those records, didn’t we? It has been a party and a treat — sweet jam spread over 82 games across 170 days.
IN MY OPINION

Greg Cote: UM is right, but NCAA has the might

What is it they say about no animal being more dangerous than one wounded or backed into a corner? Apparently the same is true of a staggered NCAA, which suffers from the national embarrassment of its own corruption and buffoonery but nevertheless has some desperate fight left in it.