2023-06-05 21:58:12
Sunday, Miami won with forceps in Denver (111-108) to equalize with a victory everywhere during the final stage before the NBA title. A victory all the more convincing, as their opponent had not yet lost on his floor since the start of the play-offs.
And if the leaders Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo were obviously predominant (21 points each), it was Gabriel Vincent who finished top scorer with 23 points scored, with a formidable skill (8/12 including 4/6 behind the ‘bow). An excellent shooter, the 26-year-old leader, who had scored 19 three evenings earlier, impresses with his serenity and his ability to play fair.
“He’s one of those guys who has made his way, ignoring the + you’re not this, you’re not that + … I think a lot of people will find out who Gabe Vincent is,” said Adebayo, remembering that in 2021 “he spanked us in an Olympics warm-up game with Nigeria. He already had that type of energy, that snarl and anger. That day, I felt that he was one of us”.
“Deserve and work hard”
For the pivot, “the undrafted can start in the NBA finals and it doesn’t matter that they weren’t selected”.
Miami, which has no less than nine, more than half of its workforce, requested seven during these play-offs – a number never reached in 57 years in the NBA. In addition to Vincent, there are Max Strus, also holder, Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith, Omer Yurtseven and veteran Udonis Haslem, guarantor of a “Heat Culture” advocating a taste for effort and dedication to the team.
The 42-year-old interior has been at the club for twenty years. He had convinced President Pat Riley to recruit him, after a first professional season at Chalon-sur-Saône (2002-2003) in France. He was in all the Miami finals, including those won in 2006, 2012 and 2013.
“It is not possible to measure a player’s character, discipline or sense of responsibility during a draft, and many of these elements are sometimes overlooked. You will be given the same chance here as if you were selected number one. You just have to earn it and work hard,” Haslem told The New York Times.
The NBA has 126 undrafted players, about a quarter of the contingent. And at the Heat, these “outsiders” have risen in rank, concentrating a third of the points scored by the team during the past regular season.
“Competitors and winners”
Also, coach Erik Spoelstra regrets that his players are reduced to this status. “It’s over, it’s a lack of respect to continue to talk about them in this way. These guys have proven themselves to be competitors and winners”.
“I appreciate that he said that. It means a lot and he’s right. But it’s something that will always stick with us, even if with what we’re doing for the team it doesn’t resonate anymore. really in us”, reacted Max Strus, whose strength of character was brilliant on Sunday, with his four award-winning baskets in a row (14 pts) in the first quarter, to make people forget his 0/9 three evenings earlier.
Duncan Robinson, who put the Heat on the road to success in the last quarter, scoring the first ten points with 100% success, recently assured that “as an underdog, when you are given the opportunity to wearing this jersey, you want to get high”. He was also rewarded in 2021, with a five-year, $90 million contract.
“When you’re in this position (undrafted), you’re ready to do anything,” added Caleb Martin, not yet in sight in this final, but who was decisive against Boston in the previous round, his 19, 3 points on average (60.2% shooting success) placing him in the discussion for the Eastern Finals MVP trophy that ultimately went to Jimmy Butler.
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