What does it take to play a Christmas game? Big names? Perhaps a link to Michael Jordan? The best record? The Miami Heat don’t know!
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Perhaps no franchise in the NBA is as disrespected as the Miami Heat. They made the conference finals last year and still, no Christmas game? What does the franchise have to do to earn the respect of the NBA?
The Miami Heat are one of the NBA’s biggest franchises and in recent times one of its more popular ones too. In the last 10 years, its value has jumped nearly 6x to a whopping $2.3 billion today!
More importantly, what haven’t they done? They have one of the league’s most exciting teams. They have a superstar in the form of Jimmy Butler, who is rumored to be related to Michael Jordan. The team consistently finishes inside the top 4 of the east.
The presence of stars like Butler isn’t enough to catapult them to an important TV slot. In fact, we think you wouldn’t have come so far if we didn’t use our particular title.
Yes, it may sound a little far-fetched but that is the point here. The Miami Heat have been given no respect here and apart from their fan base, nobody else cares.
Also read: Jimmy Butler refuses to pay $842,500 to former sports manager over $5 million Nike deal
Teams like the New York Knicks get a Christmas game, even without any link to winning or Michael Jordan! Miami Heat is in despair.
Make the conference finals by beating a team with a former MVP and an MVP contender, furthermore take the Boston Celtics to 7 games in the conference finals and still lose?
The sheer breadth of work Miami has done is still not enough for the NBA to give merit. Instead, a team like the New York Knicks is getting a Christmas game. It’s primetime TV and while NY remains a big market, it is not a deserving team.
Miami Heat when they find out they’re the only team to make conference finals and not get a Christmas game pic.twitter.com/dimiHa5too
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) August 17, 2022
The power balance in the NBA is still very lopsided and the scheduling shows you just that.
Last 8 teams in the playoffs are hosting Christmas games, except the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat have the best Christmas game % in the NBA (11-2 at 84%)
“Heat have no superstars”, while Jimmy Butler was the best player in the playoffs last year pic.twitter.com/imdllhMQmJ
— HEATMUSE (@HEATmuse) August 15, 2022
Even the Heat’s own Twitter handle was complaining about the lack of TV coverage. Well, we’re not sure what a team has to do to get a TV spot during Christmas time.
Guess we were this close to getting a Christmas game… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/Lu9CLgx5iU
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) August 17, 2022