Heat’s All-Star moment came before the game, producing a ‘magical’ photo. How it went down
The defining moment of All-Star Weekend for the Miami Heat came before the All-Star Game.
Just a few hours before Sunday night’s showcase event at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse that capped off the weekend, the Heat’s All-Star representatives gathered for a photo. Coach Erik Spoelstra, his coaching staff and other team personnel who made the trip to Cleveland stood around Jimmy Butler for the photo.
Then a group of former Heat players who were named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team walked by and plans changed.
“We originally just wanted to get a photo with Jimmy,” Spoelstra said following Sunday’s All-Star Game. “Then as we were getting Jimmy ready for the photo, then Dwyane [Wade] walked by. Then we’re like, ‘Wait a minute. You got to get in this photo.’ Then [Gary Payton] walked by and then Ray [Allen] was just right around the corner, then [Bob McAdoo] walked in.”
The result was a moment that will be remembered for a long time, as the Heat’s All-Star contingent of Butler, Spoelstra, his coaching staff and other team personnel gathered with Shaquille O’Neal, Wade, Payton, Allen and McAdoo for a photo.
“We were able to spend 15-20 minutes, just all the Heat legacy guys together,” Spoelstra said. “That will go down as one of the special moments for me.”
Allen, LeBron James, McAdoo, O’Neal, Payton and Wade are the six with Heat ties who made the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, which is made up of those were selected as the greatest 75 players in NBA history. James is the only one in that group who was not able to make the photo opportunity.
“It was one of the magical moments that we all have now on record,” Spoelstra said. “It’s going up in every one of our offices for sure.”
As for the game, Spoelstra and his staff coached Team Durant and Butler played for Team LeBron. In the end, it was Team LeBron that came away with a 163-160 win to cap off All-Star Weekend on Sunday night.
Butler finished with two points on 1-of-2 shooting, one assist and two steals in nine minutes off Team LeBron’s bench. He did not play in the second half.
Butler’s only basket came on a 15-foot one-legged fadeaway jumper in the second quarter. His only other shot attempt came in the first quarter when he missed an open corner three.
“He was talking trash,” Spoelstra said of spending one night as Butler’s opponent. “If he hit that three in the corner. As soon as he came in the game and he shot that open three, he would have sprinted down barking at us. But it was mostly friendly.”
It was everything around the game that made Sunday special for Spoelstra, though. Spoelstra and his staff — Malik Allen, Dan Bisaccio, Caron Butler, Anthony Carter, Eric Glass and Chris Quinn — watched the halftime ceremony honoring the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team on television from the locker room.
“It was really compelling,” Spoelstra said. “But we did our team photo and our photos with our staff and everything as they were setting up for the photo of the top 75. So everybody was in the same room and we all felt like kids. We wanted to be super respectful, but you just quite naturally wanted to grab a piece of paper and just start getting autographs. One of the coolest things I saw was Rick Barry going around and getting autographs from all the other 75 players. It was cool.”
Then there was the time spent with each other and their families over the weekend. Spoelstra’s staff was alongside him for the All-Star experience from start to finish.
“This was a really special weekend for the Heat organization,” Spoelstra said. “We take a lot of pride in this. We all brought our families out and it really was like a family vacation. We all convened in the same place and had breakfast and meals together, then get on the same buses to go to the events. Seeing the staff with their families and kids was just really a lot of fun.”
The Heat’s All-Stars now have a few days off before returning to practice on Thursday. The Heat, which entered the break in first place in the Eastern Conference with a 38-21 record, resumes its schedule on Friday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“When we get back to it, you know how we are. We’ll buckle down and get serious about the stretch run,” Spoelstra said. “We know how competitive it is. We have a bunch of hard nosed competitive guys in our locker room. They thrive and want these kind of situations and compelling matchups. But we’ll get there at the end of the week when we get there.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2022 at 12:40 PM.
