Heat Culture is synonymous with Miami and is seen as an asset but former Miami player Andre Iguodala has explained how it can work against you.
Miami legend Udonis Haslem gave a detailed insight into what exactly Heat Culture is.
“It’s hard work,” Haslem told The Athletic. It’s accountability. It’s dedication. Enjoying other people’s success. It’s all things that aren’t natural to the human body and mind. The human body and mind naturally doesn’t want to work hard. It naturally wants to be selfish. It naturally doesn’t want to be held accountable every single day. It’s all the things you usually don’t want to do that you have to do once you come here.
“And it’s not one day. You’ve got to do it every day.”
Iguodala joined Miami later in his career during the 2020 season and explained how he attributed some negative things to Heat Culture.
“I shouldn’t say this ’cause it might be taken the wrong way, but whatever,” Iguodala said on The Old Man and the Three. “Like when you go to prison, you get handed your orange suit and them flip-flops. I got handed my jersey, practice jersey, practice shorts, socks. Then you get your knee pads and mouthpiece. And I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t need that. I don’t wear knee braces or mouthpieces.’ He was like, ‘Yes you do.’ I’m like, ‘Bro, I been in the league for 15, 16 years. I’ve had success.’ And he’s like, ‘No, you need that.’ And I’m like, ‘Here y’all go.’ But once I embraced it, I’m like, ‘Huh, we do play harder than everybody in the league, and this does matter at the end of the year.’
“But there are side effects to that. And my second year in Miami we were like last in the league in wide-open shot percentage. I had a great conversation with a few of the coaches, and they’ve changed a little bit. I’ve seen that. I noticed that that stress of like just being locked in, it affects you when, like, ‘Don’t miss a wide-open shot.’ ‘Cause they work you. You workin’ out there. Like you work in practice harder than the game. I always tell the guys like, ‘Yo, the game is easy. We work too damn hard to be stressed on the court.’ But your brain is always locked in of like, ‘Don’t make mistakes’ sometimes ’cause you’re so locked in.
“We missed a whole lot of wide-open shots. And I would look at Duncan [Robinson]. You know Duncan’s my guy. I love Duncan to death. Duncan missed a wide-open shot, you would think the world’s about to end. He was like, ‘No, I’m out here to shoot. I can never miss.’ Now I love that mindset. … I’m like, ‘Duncan, if you miss a shot, that don’t mean we gonna stop passing to you.’ But I think there’s some correlation there.”
Miami got very close to winning their first chip since the LeBron era last season.
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