By CHRIS PERKINS
FOXSportsFlorida.com Heat Writer
March 7, 2011
You worry about the mental state of a team that cries after losing Game No. 63.
Crying? After Game 63? Really? What's going on with the Heat?
It seems as though they're cracking under the pressure.
Did Cleveland players cry when they were on that 26-game losing streak this season? Did New Jersey Nets players cry last year when they got off to a 0-18 start?
Those are reasons to cry. The Heat's 43-20 record and its 87-86 loss to Chicago aren't reasons to cry.
And people definitely cried in that Heat locker room Sunday. Coach Erik Spoelstra told us people cried. Here's the postgame quote:
"This is painful for every single one of us to go through this," Spoelstra said, adding, "There are couple of guys crying in the locker room right now."
We don't know who cried, but no one has denied crying took place. Well, Spoelstra tried to deny it after Monday's practice. More on that later.
It's OK to cry after you're eliminated from the playoffs. There's no more basketball. It hurts. We get it.
But a group of alpha males crying after a regular-season game? That's pressure getting to you. And it's worrisome.
So, too, is denying the crying incident, which is what Spoelstra did Monday.
Spoelstra, the NBA coach you'd most like to have a beer with because he's such a normal guy, took the worn-out "blame the media" approach when asked Monday about his remark.
"This is classic example of sensationalism," Spoelstra said. "Just looking for a headline."
Spoelstra claimed to be "shocked" Monday morning when media relations director Tim Donovan told him the Heat were being clowned nationally. So when asked if there were any tears in the locker room, Spoelstra starting backpedaling.
"No," he said. "What I saw (was) guys with heads down, there was a lot of noise going in there. I think the rest of it you guys are really searching for sensationalism right now. I call it CryGate."
Nationwide, people are calling it much worse.
LeBron James and Dwyane Wade side-stepped the crying issue Monday.
James, when asked if Spoelstra made a mistake by saying players cried, said, "We stay together. Spo is the captain of the ship. And we're going stay behind whatever Spo says. It doesn't matter. Spo can go out and there say whatever he wants about the team and we're going to stand behind him."
Then Wade remarked about Spo, "He could have told y'all anything. He could have been lying."
James and Wade then joked about getting into a postgame fistfight. That's how they've chosen to deal with the pressure: laugh it off. But neither player said no one cried.
The same was true for injured forward Udonis Haslem, the most no-nonsense player on the team.
"Guys might have been crying," Haslem said. "I don't have to shower after the game, I don't have to get dressed, so I was in and out of there. I was so pissed off that I was in and out of there, so I don't know what (Spoelstra) saw, or if guys were crying. But it's just another reason for people to throw gasoline on the fire."
Forward Chris Bosh was sympathetic to the crybaby (or crybabies).
"When you put your passion into something, man, you give it your all," he began. "You can't help your reaction sometimes if you put everything you can into winning the game. You know what I'm saying?"
Kinda. But not really. . .
