Miami Heat Fans, Players Revel in Opening Night Festivities

MIAMI --

The Scene Outside

It's late October and thousands upon thousands of Miami fans are descending upon the town's hottest sports event. People are tailgating behind their parked cars as multiple scalpers and buyers do business. Yet this is all taking place in downtown Miami and not at Sun Life Stadium where that other prominent team does its business at this time of the year.

With a planned protest near the arena by the city's policemen and firefighters that had threatened to snarl traffic in the area fizzling out and a tipoff time a half hour later than usual, most fans with a ticket were at their seats long before the Heat's new player introduction began. Doors to the arena had opened two hours prior to game time with increased staff handling the gates, leading to a much improved and expedited process for entry. The palpable sense of collective energy from the fans hadn't been felt since the days of Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade pairing up for the franchise's first title back in 2006.


Pregame Introductions

Never ones to shy away from a grand entrance, as was clearly demonstrated when they organized the now-infamous celebration introducing the SuperTrio back in July, the Heat unveiled their slick new player introduction video to the tune of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight". Perhaps it's merely coincidence that LeBron James' new Nike commercial (which played later on in the arena during a timeout) features a homage to Miami Vice complete with a Don Johnson cameo, but Collins' music was featured heavily throughout the TV series and he also appeared in one episode. Interesting that with the future so bright in Miami the choice was made to go retro.

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In what looked more like the introduction to an All-Star Game, the Heat starters were presented one-by-one with each bathed in a spotlight standing under a flat disc bearing their jersey numbers.

"I liked it. Very subtle," teased Wade when asked about the unusual manner in which they were introduced.

As James chuckled next to him, Wade said he was happy to not have to run out into the court.

"I'm getting older. All that body bumping and stuff like that. I'm cool with it. I get to stay there and not get hit."

New Kids on the Block

With all the pomp and circumstance of such an event there was still the small matter of an actual game to be played against a strong Eastern rival. For his part, James was simply happy to get a win in his first home game.

"This is what we envisioned when all made the decision - when D-Wade decided to come back, me and Chris decided to join him and even the rest of the guys," James said. "Is it going to be a 26-point win and a dominating victory like this every night? No, it's the NBA and we know that. The fans came out and the least we can do is play hard for them and it was great."

Chris Bosh was the one player of the trio most unaccustomed to the national spotlight so early in the season.

"It was like the playoffs," said Bosh after the game. "It was very high energy. Everybody was into it. Every possession we were scrapping. The crowd didn't have many quiet points throughout the night and that's really important. I think if they continue to do that for the whole season and make it very tough to play here, that's nothing but an advantage for us.

We have to defend our home court. It starts with us but the crowd really had our backs and really gave us a lot of emotion and energy as the game went on."