Miami Heat: The Guns N’ Roses of the NBA
Aug 7, 2010 Blog
The Miami Heat: A long term successful dynasty or a short term collaboration that self destructs before the full potential is reached? Comparing basketball to music, are the Miami Heat going to be long surviving Aerosmith or the couple of albums and done Guns N’ Roses? I’m putting my money on them being the white hot flames that burn brightly, but only for a short time before imploding under the stress of their own personalities and egos. If the Heat are Guns N’ Roses, then let’s take a look at the members of the band.
The frontman, LeBron James, has all the attributes to play Axl Rose. James is a control freak and prima donna who loves the limelight. Everyone look at me and bow down to the king because the basketball world hangs on my every move. I am bigger than the NBA! While the rest of the band may tolerate this when things are new and going well, it gets really old after awhile. Just ask Slash. GNR collapsed because Axl Rose considered himself bigger than the band while Aerosmith has continued to thrive because Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, while they’ve had disagreements, consider themselves equals. Will James’ future be more Axl or Tyler? Will the rock and roll distractions of South Beach hinder James’ dedication to the game? Will the media feed James’ already rockstar-like ego to the point of implosion?
On lead guitar we have Dwyane Wade playing the part of Slash. Wade is a highly talented artist who contributes just as much as the frontman, but won’t get the same recognition or credit. Will he resent the attention lavished on James after being the frontman in Miami for so long? Like Slash, Wade will probably hold his tongue as long as he possibly can, depending on how much success the team has. But at some point, even best friends can crack under the pressure of fame and media attention. It’s like a couple of high school buddies who decide to room together in college. It sounds like a great idea, but once you actually have to be around each other 24 hours a day, things can really go sour. If there is a fault line that could turn into a major dividing point on this team, it’s the Axl-Slash component. Will Wade feel his talents are being underappreciated, thereby causing him to become resentful of King James?
Every band needs a competent bass player in the shadows and Chris Bosh has been brought in to play the part of Duff McKagan. McKagan is a gifted musician in his own right who’s now with Velvet Revolver and has created several other projects that have been successful. Similarly, Bosh has been a very productive player in Toronto where he achieved all-star status, so he brings solid credentials. At some point in GNR when things went sour, McKagan was forced to pick a side, either Axl or Slash. Will Chris Bosh get pushed into this choice if there is a break between James and Wade? Will Bosh be able to live with the fact that he is going to get very little credit at all for Miami’s success? Is he mature enough to play third wheel?
No band is complete without a young, inconsistent, heroin addicted drummer. The part of Steven Adler will be played by Mario Chalmers. While Chalmers isn’t heroin addicted, he is young and he is very inconsistent. With the talent filling the top three spots, all that is needed from Chalmers is a basic, competent, consistent performance on a nightly basis. Can he do it in the Miami spotlight with the pressure of LeBron looking on? Is Chalmers set up to be the scapegoat if things don’t go well? If he can’t perform consistently, will Axl kick him out of the band and bring in an experienced stick man?
When the inevitable meltdown happens, the band needs a new drummer. GNR brought in the older, more experienced Matt Sorum of The Cult to solidify the band. He’s nothing flashy, but he brings veteran consistency and earns his paycheck every performance and never asks for the spotlight. For this role, the Heat have brought in Eddie House. House has the experience from playing with another successful band, the Big Three in Boston, and could slide right into the same situation in Miami. He’s a veteran, he’s consistent and he rarely asks for the spotlight to be on him. It’s was a good pickup for Miami and a stabilizing force for the team.
Every band needs a couple of glue guys. The ones behind the scenes that do the dirty work of writing the songs and playing some keyboards or other little used instruments. GNR had Izzy Stradlin and Dizzy Reed, the Heat have Udonis Haslem and Joel Anthony. Stradlin and Reed never got much credit in the music world and I doubt if many casual basketball fans really know who Haslem or Anthony are either. Dizzy Reed was with the original GNR and he’s still with the new Chinese Democracy GNR, much like Udonis has been with the old Heat and the new superteam version. He graciously does the dirty work while being an invisible, calming, veteran presence in the locker room. Haslem can play many instruments, he can score, he can rebound and he can play defense. Joel Anthony is young and raw and his talent is shotblocking and rebounding.
I guess Mike Miller is going to end up with the role of Gilby Clarke. Clarke was only with the band for three years as a rhythm guitarist on their last album, Use Your Illusion I and II. Miller is a hustle guy who will try to knock down the outside shot and grab some rebounds and keep the energy going on the team. Much like Gilby, he’ll probably be gone in a year or two, but hopefully he’ll have a ring to show for his career and something to tell his grandkids about.
The talent in GNR was never in doubt, which is evidenced by the long term successful careers and projects created by each individual member after the collapse of GNR. History shows that GNR had the talent to be a great long term dynasty, but they just couldn’t work together. The sum of the parts ceased to be greater than the individual pieces. While they created some great music, they could have been so much more. Is Miami set up for the same fall?
So how are the Heat going to handle the challenges of being the biggest, brightest band on the scene in 2010? How are they going to handle the fame and fortune? How will they handle the inevitable South Beach rock and roll distractions that come with being in the spotlight ? And most importantly, how will they handle their friendship now that they have to live and work together every single day rather than previous seasons where they were thousands of miles apart on different teams? Who knows, but it’s going to be really fun soap opera to watch. Rock on.
Tags: fantasy basketball