Whether it was toughness through adversity or bonding the teammates, the Miami Heat took some life lessons from their unexpected run to the National Basketball Association Finals.
The Heat, only the second eighth seed in NBA history to reach the best-of-seven series, lost 94-89 at Denver on Monday to fall 4-1 in a disappointing end to a magical run as a play-in team.
“I learned so much,” Heat star Jimmy Butler said.
“I wish I could have got it done for these guys because they definitely deserve it. But the one thing I’m going to take from it is how grateful I am to be able to compete with them.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was able to shake off the disappointment to put Miami’s play-in win and elimination of NBA regular-season leader Milwaukee, New York and Boston in long-term perspective.
“Our guys will be able to take that quality the rest of their careers — that grit, the perseverance, the toughness, the ability to compete and put yourself out there for everybody to judge and to be able to handle adversity,” Spoelstra said.
“Even though it’s sport, you can learn lessons of life from this game — that you can persevere, you can handle what people may view as mini-failures along the way and become stronger from it and overcome things.”
The Heat lost in the finals for the third time in 10 years but just reaching the championship series was a shocking feat.
“We would have liked to be able to climb the mountaintop and be able to get that final win,” Spoelstra said.
“But I think this is a team that a lot of people can relate to, if you ever felt that you were dismissed or made to feel less than. We had a lot of people in our locker room that probably have had that, and there’s probably a lot of people out there that have felt that.”
“But also, the way this team handled setbacks and adversity. Hopefully, these are lessons that will transcend this beautiful game, that we can pass along to our children.”
Miami’s Kyle Lowry, who won a title with Toronto, praised Butler and the special bond among teammates but was still hurting too much from his title dreams ending in heartache.
“It’s a special bond with this group. We were led by one of the best basketball players on this earth, and he instilled confidence in us,” Lowry said of Butler.
“We don’t know how we’re going to feel right now, but we’ll look back at some point and say it was a great year, great run. But right now, just can’t even think about that.”
