Imagine. No coronavirus & games never stopped. What Miami sports would look like now | Opinion
Mickey Muse was born in 1928. Disneyland opened. The Lion King and Frozen set box office records.
Now, to any list of notable achievements n the annals of The Walt Disney Company, please add that one very strange time in late April of 2020, when America was bored at home in the throes of a coronavirus pandemic, starving for sports — and there came Disney-owned ESPN to the rescue.
“The Last Dance,” the 10-part miniseries on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, has been the most watched documentary in ESPN history. And in the middle of that the virtual NFL Draft set all-time records for most viewers as we all tuned in for Roger Goodell calling players’ names from his basement.
It was proof our hunger is for any sports right. Not necessarily live games. Not necessarily anything current. Just sports. If the next chapter is leagues resuming without fans, yes, we’ll be there, too, watching live baseball played in eerily quiet, empty stadiums.
The spread of COVID-19 shutdown sports in a flurry on March 11-12.
I thought it would be fun to imagine what we’d be in the middle of in South Florida team sports right had the coronavirus never existed, or, put more depressingly, all we’ve missed in the 50 days since sports stopped.
If the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers seasons had continued.
If the Miami Marlins and Inter Miami’s inaugural soccer season hadn’t halted.
If Miami Hurricanes football had gone through spring practice as planned.
Join us on the our flight of fancy. No face masks required:
▪ HEAT ADVANCE TO EASTERN SEMIFINALS: The Miami Heat finished 52-30, narrowly hung onto to fourth place in the NBA East, and Tuesday night completed a 4-2 first round series win over the Indiana Pacers. Miami won Game 6 on the visitors’ court, 120-113, behind Jimmy Butler’s 25 points and a monstrous 19 rebounds from Bam Adebayo.
Miami is now in the Eastern semifinals for the first time since 2016 but next face the Milwaukee Bucks, who finished with an NBA-best 67-15 record and swept Orlando in the opening round. The Heat twice beat Milwaukee in the regular season, though, as Adebayo was able to neutralize league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“We proved we can beat them,” said Adebayo. “We’re confident.”
▪ PANTHERS DISAPPOINT, MISS PLAYOFFS: Florida was supposed to be a playoff team with new star-coach Joel Quenneville and free-agent goalkeeper-prize Sergei Bobrovsky, but missed the NHL playoffs by two points despite a winning record and solid 93-point season.
The Cats missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year despite having six players with 20-plus goals led by Mike Hoffman with 33.
“That new playoff format killed us,” said general manager Dale Tallon, noting Florida would have reached the postseason under the old system. “But no excuses. We were better, but not good enough.”
▪ SURPRISING MARLINS WRAP UP SERIES IN SAN JUAN: Miami, a surprising 18-11 and tied for the NL East lead, was after a two-game sweep of the New York Mets on Wednesday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Opening Day starter Sandy Alcantara was looking for a fifth straight win to start the season.
Perhaps sooner than expected, the Marlins thus far have begun to see the results of the ground-up rebuild that fortified the farm system ascending young talent.
“We’re beginning to see what we envisioned all along,” said CEO Derek Jeter.
Miami is back home Friday night vs. Pittsburgh, looking for a 10th consecutive Marlins Park crowd of more than 20,000.
▪ ROUGH INAUGURAL SEASON CONTINUES FOR INTER MIAMI: Well this wasn’t what David Beckham had in mind. Inter Miami was 1-6-1 in its first year in Major League Soccer entering Wednesday night’s match at Real Salt Lake. The club has managed to score only five goals in eight matches.
Miami has sold out all five home matches at Inter Miami CF Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Still, with higher expectations entering this long-awaited startup year, many fans have begun to grumble that Beckham and majority owner Jorge Mas have not delivered on the starpower once promised.
“We are a better side today than when the season began,” said coach Diego Alonso. “And I can say we anticipate signing help with transfer players this summer.”
▪ CANES FOOTBALL ENDS SPRING WITH BUOYANT HOPES: Coach Manny Diaz isn’t saying his quarterback competition ended this spring, but by all appearances it has.
D’Eriq King, the transfer QB from Houston, completed an electric offseason showing with five touchdown passes in the spring game as the Hurricanes seem poised to rebound in the fall from last year’s disappointing 6-7 season.
UM had no player drafted higher than the fourth round in last week’s NFL Draft, but could have as many as four first-round picks in 2021, based on early estimates.
Defensive end Gregory Rousseau is a consensus top-10 pick and even top five in most early mock drafts. Tight end Brevin Jordan and defensive end Quincy Roche show up in some mock first rounds, and the QB King - though still only the presumed starter, officially -- is the fourth-most likely player to be the overall No. 1 pick in 2021, based on odds via BetMGM.com.
OK, our flight of fancy has landed.
Back to reality.
Stay safe as you await the return of sports and, eventually, that sweet sound of a cheering crowd.
