Heat guard Dion Waiters travels to Syracuse for advice, says suspension ’a minor setback’
As the fourth game of Dion Waiters’ 10-game suspension unfolded Saturday night at AmericanAirlines Arena, Waiters was in Syracuse, N.Y.
Waiters, who spent two seasons at Syracuse before entering the NBA, made an appearance at the Carrier Dome to watch his alma mater defeat Seattle on Saturday. It gave Waiters a chance to get away to a familiar place and seek advice from Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.
The Heat announced last week that it suspended Waiters for 10 games without pay for conduct detrimental to the team. The next game Waiters, 27, will be eligible to play in following the suspension will be the Heat’s road matchup against the Nets on Dec. 1.
“I just wanted to come up and talk to coach [Boeheim],” Waiters said to Donna Ditota from The Post-Standard while at Saturday’s Syracuse-Seattle game, marking Waiters’ first comments to the media since the start of the regular season. “I know that’s a person who will always be there for me if I ever need anything. It’s a chance for me to come up, be around, talk to the coaches, things like that. And that’s important.”
The 10-game suspension is related to a series of events involving Waiters that began with complaining about playing time in the preseason, continued with social media shots directed at coach Erik Spoelstra and teammate Tyler Herro and it culminated with an alarming medical situation involving Waiters on the Heat’s flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles on the night of Nov. 7, a source told the Miami Herald.
South Florida Fox Sports Radio host Andy Slater reported last week, “Waiters overdosed on ‘gummies,’ sources say, and was passed out when plane landed. He had a seizure when he was finally woken up, I’m told.”
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Waiters experienced a panic attack on the team flight after consuming a THC-infused edible.
League rules prohibit the use of THC, with players who violate the NBA’s marijuana policy forced to enter the league’s marijuana program. The 10-game suspension issued by the Heat does not have to do with a possible violation of the NBA’s anti-drug policy, with drug violations handled by the league.
Waiters did not get into the specifics regarding what happened on the team flight that night, but he did talk about where he stands mentally.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I’m in a great place,” he said to The Post-Standard. “I can only control what I can control at the end of the day, so some things you just can’t allow to take your head the other way, some things happen for a reason. If you stay locked in, if you believe and trust in yourself, trust in the work you put in, you know, it’s a minor setback. It happens. It’s life. You learn from it. The only thing I can do is move forward. Stay focused. Stay even-keeled. Let everything else take care of itself.”
Waiters is in the third season of a four-year, $52 million contract he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2017. He has a $1.2 million bonus in his contract for appearing in at least 70 of Miami’s 82 games, and the 10-game suspension erased any chance of Waiters qualifying for that extra money.
Waiters has been on the Heat’s active roster in just two games this regular season — a Nov. 3 win over the Rockets and a Nov. 7 win over the Suns — but he did not play or even appear on the team’s bench in either game.
With Waiters unavailable, rookie guards Kendrick Nunn and Herro have made the most of their opportunities to start the season. Through the first 12 games, Nunn ranks second among rookies in scoring at 17.8 points per game and Herro is averaging 13.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
The Heat is 9-3 following Saturday’s 109-94 victory over the Pelicans, which is tied for the best start to a season in team history. Next up for the Heat is a Wednesday home game against the Cavaliers.
Waiters has been off limits by the Heat for comment since his initial suspension at the beginning of the regular season. He was suspended by the Heat for the first game of the season, for what the team called unprofessional conduct
“I’m a competitor,” Waiters said to The Post-Standard. “Any time you work hard and you envision something a certain way and it’s not going as you planned and you see it, you know, you go back to the drawing board and you figure it out. That’s what it’s about — figuring it out. So continue to work, always stay confident. Just having the right people in your corner make things a lot easier. [It’s] being a competitor and wanting to play and me being healthy. Because you set goals. It’s taking a little longer but I still got those same goals, that same ambition. It’s not the end of my story.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 1:35 AM.
