Gotta run!.

Pat Riley coached Magic Johnson and company during the glorious “Showtime” days in Los Angeles (winning 4 titles in the ’80s), and when recruiting free agent Shane Battier to Miami, Riley made the claim that the Heat remind him of those legendary Laker teams. From ESPN: “He’s had some good times in South Florida over the years, adding a ring to the portfolio and making loads of cash. But Pat Riley’s glory days will always be those jet-black hair and thin tie years in L.A. He found himself pondering Showtime again recently when sorting through what he should do with his Heat roster heading into his second season with his Big Three. Riley was putting the full press on Shane Battier and getting LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to recruit via text messages. Part of the sale was stories about those old Lakers. In signing Battier, which the Heat finalized over the weekend, the Heat have become a team loaded with wing players. Coach Erik Spoelstra said that he envisions playing James, Wade, Battier and Mike Miller (when he recovers from hernia surgery) together at times. That’s a rare style seen more in college than the NBA. And a type that Riley often used to perfection when racking up titles with the Lakers. ‘It reminded me a little bit of what I had for nine years in Los Angeles,’ Riley said. ‘I had Magic (Johnson) and (Michael) Cooper and (Byron) Scott and (James Worthy). Basically perimeters that played all different positions. I see Shane and Mike Miller and I see Dwyane and LeBron in almost the same kind of thing. (Spoelstra) has the same opportunity.’”

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HOUSTON, TX – APRIL 5: Samuel Dalembert #10 of the Sacramento Kings and Luis Scola #4 of the Houston Rockets fight for the rebound on April 5, 2011 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE/Getty Images)

If anybody needs tickets to games, remember to click the tickets link at the top.

There is the quick update of the day.

CORAL GABLES, Fla.—

As the Miami Heat’s lone representative at the Monday meeting that led to a hardened players’ stance in the NBA lockout, James Jones insisted he did not stand alone.

Instead, as secretary-treasurer of what formerly had stood as the players’ union, Jones said Tuesday that he cast the Heat’s vote against the NBA’s latest proposal after canvassing almost the entire roster.

“I spoke to the majority of the guys, just about all of ‘em,” Jones told the Sun Sentinel.

Jones said at no point in the process, which ended with the union electing to file a “disclaimer of interest” and disband, did he act against the interest of any of his Heat teammates.

“Our players elected our team officials and our reps to go up there and speak on their behalf and that’s what I did,” Jones said.

Forward Chris Bosh, who attended Tuesday’s University of Miami-Rutgers game and spoke to a pair of South Florida reporters during the first half, said he also understood the Heat’s vote to be unanimous.

“I don’t like it,” Bosh said of the nasty turn in the negotiations that led to the filing of antitrust complaints Tuesday in Minnesota and California. “I don’t think anybody likes it. But sometimes when you’re doing business it’s so hard to kind of draw the line and work together.”

Bosh praised Jones’ efforts, but said it still is difficult to comprehend an entire season could be lost.

“It’s still kind of weird not playing, because I’ve always played in November,” he said. “So it’s feeling real out of place.”

He said it would not be a stretch to believe the Heat’s signing of himself, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in the 2010 offseason contributed to the league’s belief that the work rules had to change.

“I think so,” he said.

But he said efforts to block such an approach are misguided.

“I mean, if you look at the free agents coming up in the same situations, with Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, they can control their own fate,” he said. “They have the power to control that and I think that’s a great thing. In any job you want freedom to negotiate.

“With us doing what we did, and Carmelo going to the Knicks, I think that has a lot to do with it. Hopefully we can keep that and guys can come and go and make the deal that’s best for them and their family.”

Bosh said he is not currently considering overseas options.

“I guess for me personally, it’s probably when the whole season is (lost), if it gets to that point,” he said. “If it gets to that point where there is no chance there is a season, then I might consider it. But even then a lot of things have to happen.”

Instead, his next overseas appearance could come in the 2012 London Olympics, with Wade and James already having committed.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I’ve been looking forward to the experience ever since we had it the last time. We’ve been talking about it for years and it’s been four years already.”

Jones said his work with the players’ association is essentially over.

“It’s out of our hands now,” he said. “It’s in the lawyers’ hands now. And anything regarding that stuff is best answered by them.”

iwinderman@tribune.com, Twitter @IraHeatBeat

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CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP)—Miami linebacker Jordan Futch was recovering
Tuesday from a suspected case of heat exhaustion, which necessitated him being
taken from the Hurricanes’ practice field by paramedics and transported by
ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Futch, who has been trying to recover from an upper-body injury, was
conditioning around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday adjacent to where most of his teammates
were practicing. It was already 82 degrees on campus at that point, and felt
like 88 when factoring in unseasonably high humidity—“sneaky hot,” Miami
coach Al Golden said.

Futch was running and apparently felt faint, then went to the ground. He was
tended to on-site by team athletic trainers, and paramedics were called as a
precaution.

“It seems like everything is fine,” Golden said. “I think it was a case
of dehydration and low sugar levels. Again, I’m not the doctor but I’m just
trying to give you the idea that everything’s fine. He just felt really weak or
faint.”

Futch was not available for comment. Golden said he is not expected to play
Saturday when Miami (5-5) visits South Florida (5-4) in the Hurricanes’
next-to-last regular-season game.

“Jordan has been limited in his activity for the last nine or 10 days …
and we wanted to be safe,” Golden said. “From all accounts Jordan is doing
fine.”

Futch has 20 tackles in nine games this season for Miami.

Also Tuesday, Golden said safety Ray-Ray Armstrong will play against South
Florida. Armstrong did not play last week against Florida State while team
officials investigated whether he broke NCAA rules by having dinner with a
friend who owns a public-relations firm and represents professional athletes.

Miami compliance officers checked into the matter, found no wrongdoing, and
Golden said that athletic director Shawn Eichorst gave Armstrong full clearance
on Monday.

Follow Tim Reynolds on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ByTimReynolds

That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

There is the quick update of the day.

It was just a couple of days ago I was feeling despondent about the chances my beloved Miami Heat would get the chance to compete for a title this year. Reading one of the latest articles by Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald on Wednesday, Oct. 26 that reported because of a stalemate in talks between the NBA owners and players trying to end the lockout and reach a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) the league was ready to cancel games through Nov. 28 I was as depressed as can be.

Yet, just two days later it seems like the clouds that have surrounded professional basketball might just be lifting, and a new, bright, sunshiny day could be on the horizon.

According to the latest article by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, the two sides are on the cusp of an agreement after having met into the wee hours of the morning on Friday, Oct. 28. The meetings, which lasted an apparent 15 hours, ended with a “strong expectation [within the negotiations] that hands will shake [Friday]” according to one source who’d been briefed on the meetings.

With those negotiations set to resume at 10:30 a.m. EST on Friday, that could very well mean NBA fans might be sitting down to dinner this evening knowing there really is going to be a season; even if it isn’t a full one.

However, it seems even a full season isn’t out of the question if the players and owners can finalize a deal on Friday.

“I think we’re within reach—and within striking distance of getting a deal,” Players Association executive director Billy Hunter said. “It’s just how receptive the NBA is, and whether they want to do a deal.”

On that score I won’t hold my breath, as I have come to thoroughly believe NBA commissioner David Stern isn’t so much concerned with reaching a deal as he is in getting the players to capitulate to all of his owners’ demands. Still, even I will admit I could be wrong on that, and will be more than happy to be so if it means the two sides reach an agreement that saves the 2011-12 season. As I stated in an earlier article, the Heat can’t win any games if there aren’t any games to play.

Reading Wojnarowski’s report I get the sense both the players and the owners—including Stern—are beginning to realize that. While the commissioner hasn’t said anything as optimistic as Hunter did in his quote above, he did seem perturbed the talks broke down last Thursday, Oct. 20; when he was not present because of illness.

“I leave these guys alone for a little bit of time,” Stern said, “and all hell breaks loose.”

Whether that really means Stern is going to push hard to get a deal done either Friday, or sometime over the weekend is still to be seen. However, if they can reach an agreement I doubt very much whether fans across the nation will be greatly concerned with some of the issues at the heart of the talks and how they play out; such as the Basketball Related Income (BRI) split that has driven so much of the contention in the talks.

They will be concerned with the exceptions that are going to remain in the new CBA, however, as those will effect what sort of team each franchise will be able to build going into the season. Miami, especially, would be hurt if the exceptions are drastically altered, as they face the prospect of very little salary-cap room going forward.

Still, whatever gets agreed upon, if they come out of the other side with professional basketball intact and ready to play the season, there won’t be a great deal to complain about; at least not for South Florida fans.

With the Miami Dolphins’ season all-but over with, the Florida Marlins not playing till next spring, and the Florida Panthers still facing a rebuilding period—despite their better play of late—sports fans of South Florida teams desperately need the Heat to once again take to the court.

So, it begs the question. Is there really a chance the 2011-12 NBA season can be saved?

Game On!

More from the Yahoo! Contributor Network

NBA Apparently Ready to Cancel Two More Weeks of 2011-12 Season

Nothing Bryant Gumbel Said About David Stern Proves He’s a Racist

Derrick Rose is Absolutely Correct in Saying the NBA Owners Are to Blame

Seven Players the Heat Will Be Calling When the NBA Lockout Ends

All stats and information taken from personal notes and verified at Basketball-Reference.com, NBA.com, and Yahoo! Sports.

Read more by Daniel Barber aka Hotnuke at TFS Sports.

*Daniel Barber has been a fan of all Miami teams since he was a child or since their inception having been born right above Miami.

Sources:

Basketball-Reference.com

NBA.com

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Gotta run!.

Former Miami Heat star (and current Dallas Maverick) Caron Butler tells Fox Sports that he wouldn’t exactly be opposed to taking his talents back to South Beach: “Butler, a two-time All-Star working his way back from a season-ending knee injury suffered in January, will be an unrestricted free agent whenever the NBA lockout ends. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Miami, where Butler broke into the NBA and played from 2002-04, took a look at him. ‘It’d be interesting,’ Butler said in an interview with FOX Sports Florida about the prospect of returning to the Heat. Asked whether Miami is on his list, Butler eventually said, ‘Yes.’ But he didn’t want to talk too much about the Heat, which is understandable. Butler, 31, remains loyal to Dallas, which wants him back after a season in which Butler went down with a ruptured right patellar tendon Jan. 1 and could only watch as the Mavericks beat the Heat for the NBA title last June. And he has no idea what the new rules might be in the NBA. ‘I love Dallas, what that organization, the fans, what they did for me when I went down and got injured,’ said Butler, who went scoreless in 12 minutes in the South Florida All-Star Classic on Saturday night, an event put on at Florida International University by Heat stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. ‘They supported me and stood by my side. Winning a championship there and being part of that there, that’s always special. So I just don’t know what it’s going to end up like. You got to see how stuff is structured with the new deal, the new collective bargaining agreement.’ Butler said Mavericks officials told him before the lockout started July 1 they want to re-sign him. But it’s unclear what type of salary Butler, who made $10.56 million last season, might be able to command.”

Leave any suggestions in the comment box.

MIAMI — It took some prodding. But count forward Caron Butler as a candidate to return to the Miami Heat.

Butler, a two-time All-Star working his way back from a season-ending knee injury suffered in January, will be an unrestricted free agent whenever the NBA lockout ends. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Miami, where Butler broke into the NBA and played from 2002-04, took a look at him.

“It’d be interesting,” Butler said in an interview with FOX Sports Florida about the prospect of returning to the Heat.

Asked whether Miami is on his list, Butler eventually said, “Yes.” But he didn’t want to talk too much about the Heat, which is understandable.

Butler, 31, remains loyal to Dallas, which wants him back after a season in which Butler went down with a ruptured right patellar tendon Jan. 1 and could only watch as the Mavericks beat the Heat for the NBA title last June. And he has no idea what the new rules might be in the NBA.

“I love Dallas, what that organization, the fans, what they did for me when I went down and got injured,” said Butler, who went scoreless in 12 minutes in the South Florida All-Star Classic on Saturday night, an event put on at Florida International University by Heat stars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. “They supported me and stood by my side. Winning a championship there and being part of that there, that’s always special. So I just don’t know what it’s going to end up like. You got to see how stuff is structured with the new deal, the new collective bargaining agreement.”

Butler said Mavericks officials told him before the lockout started July 1 they want to re-sign him. But it’s unclear what type of salary Butler, who made $10.56 million last season, might be able to command.

“They definitely told me they wanted me back,” Butler said. “I’m grateful for the organization. We’ll see what happens. I love Dallas. I like a lot of other places. But I really love Dallas.”

So where else does Butler like?

“That’s pretty much it,” Butler said of not wanting to mention any teams other than Dallas and Miami. “I don’t want to throw no (other) teams out there. But I am open to any suggestions.”

Perhaps Wade, who played with Butler with the Heat in 2003-04, will suggest Butler might want to return to Miami once free agency gets under way.

“Me and Dwyane, we always talk about a lot of things. So anything can happen,” said Butler, who said the two have yet to talk about the forward’s free agency.

Butler averaged 15.4 points as a rookie with the Heat in 2002-03 before slumping to 9.2 when Wade arrived in 2003-04. But after being traded to the Lakers in 2004 and moving on to Washington in 2005, Butler played in All-Star games in 2007 and 2008.

Butler, who has a career average of 16.6 points per game, landed in Dallas in February 2010. He was averaging 15 points before crashing to the floor with his season-ending injury at Milwaukee, which is just north of his hometown of Racine, Wis.

“Good,” Butler said of how his knee feels, later calling it “100″ percent. “Ready to play. Anxious to play.”

It’s just not clear with which team yet.

There is the quick update of the day.

Leave any suggestions in the comment box.

There’s this almost unanimous sentiment that no one cares about the NBA lockout.

It’s a notion that would seem to have some legs when you compare the frantic reaction during an NFL lockout that never came close to threatening a single game (those “Back to Football” ads were particularly ridiculous given that the length of the offseason was exactly the same as any other year) to the overwhelming yawn heard when the NBA’s commissioner said this weekend’s negotiating sessions could put the entire season at risk.

But there’s a particular group of fans that should be very much interested in what’s happening in New York this weekend, meetings that could very well decide the fate of this NBA season. A group of fans that needs a complete NBA season more than any other in the country.

That’s South Florida’s sports fans.

The Dolphins have become one of football’s biggest laughingstocks after Bill Parcells left behind a roster ill-equipped for today’s pass-happy NFL. A once-proud franchise has its fans praying for losses in an already-depressing season so the team can draft Stanford’s Andrew Luck.

The Hurricanes have followed up a quality win over Ohio State with a flop of a loss against Kansas State, leaving its fans frustrated already while awaiting possible devastating news from the NCAA.

The Marlins can inject some life into this place, but not truly until that new stadium opens its doors in April and possibly unveils an elite superstar in a Marlins uniform in it as well.

And as much as the Panthers have a promising group preparing to start their season, men playing with pucks on ice wearing sweaters still gets about as much excitement out of South Florida as a pending tropical depression.

What else could possibly save the sports landscape here other than LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat? Nothing else.

But beyond just reviving a fairly bored group of sports enthusiasts, consider what a lost season would do to what has been one of the most-talked-about teams in the history of sports.

This next NBA season will be even more about the Miami Heat than last year’s was. By coming up short in the most baffling of manners in the NBA Finals, LeBron became even a more fascinating figure, and in turn the Heat became an even more intriguing storyline for the 2011-12 season.

Losing a season means losing that forever. Because once labor unrest ruins a season, the narrative never picks up where it left off. The story immediately becomes how the league will recover and how long it will take fans to be fully on board again.

Much at stake for Heat

And when you factor in just how devastating losing a full season of the Big Three would be both the players and their fans, it’s fair to say no team has more at stake during this lockout than the Heat, and its fans have the most to gain if the season is played.

The Lakers? That team is in transition with a new coach and questionable future. Plus those five rings in the past 11 years would dissolve some of the angst.

The Mavericks would just be champions for that much longer. The Knicks aren’t even looking to be complete until 2012. The Celtics already got old last year, and the Bulls are young enough to withstand a one-year delay.

The Heat is more desperate to see the NBA floor again than anyone. So while there was initially discussion about overpaid players like Rashard Lewis and Gilbert Arenas being the face of the lockout, the Heat is the new face of the lockout now that we’ve reached the games-could-be-missed stage of the negotiations.

This weekend’s discussions between the owners and players’ union, which are expected to include LeBron and Wade for the first time during these negotiations, are particularly critical because David Stern’s recent threat that the season is in peril isn’t simply a negotiating ploy.

Based on the 1998 lockout, the owners don’t tend to improve their offers once games have been lost. In fact, it goes in the opposite direction. And if the players dig in their heels now and decide to call Stern’s bluff, then the talks will only go backward until, at best, there’s half a season left to be played.

This weekend could very well decide if the Heat’s chance at redemption will be delayed heavily and doused thoroughly with apathy.

This weekend could be a saving grace for South Floridians who’ve spent so much time calling for coaches to be fired and quarterbacks to be replaced that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to be satisfied with one of its teams.

Concessions needed

It already appears the NBA players are going to have to concede more than they ever expected heading into negotiations. But if they can manage to play the public-relations game, force a little bit of movement from the owners and come out of this weekend with a deal in place that at least allows them to save face, then there will be a full NBA season.

And the biggest winners in that scenario will be right here. That’s something to root for.

Who says no one cares about the NBA lockout?

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MIAMI, July 25 (UPI) — Former NBA great and current Miami Heat executive Alonzo Mourning was cited Monday for leaving the scene of an accident, a police report indicated.

A Florida Highway Patrol report said the former Heat star had been charged with a misdemeanor in connection with a July 17 accident in Miami, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

Authorities said a vehicle carrying Mourning and his wife collided with another car that had been obstructing the road due to a previous crash. The report said Mourning checked on the other car’s driver, 21-year-old William Candalerio of North Miami, and then left the scene without giving information.

Mourning later notified the Highway Patrol about the incident and was told to return to the crash site, Sgt. Thomas Pikul of the FHP told the Sun Sentinel.

Candalerio, who was cited for careless driving in the first crash, is suing Mourning for negligence, his attorney announced last week.

Pikul said alcohol was not involved in either of the mishaps and that neither Candalerio nor Mourning were treated for any crash-related injuries.

Leave your comments on the news below.

Miami Heat backup center Zydrunas Ilgauskas(notes), who came along for the ride with LeBron James(notes) from the Cleveland Cavaliers to South Florida last summer, recently exercised his player option for next season.

However, it isn’t clear that Big Z will be returning. The 7-3 Lithuanian has spent 13 seasons in the NBA, pulled down 6,191 rebounds, blocked 1,327 shots and scored 10,976 points. But despite exercising his player option, retirement remains a possibility.

“If I play, it will be in Miami,” Ilgauskas told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Right now I’m just kind of on the fence.”

Ilgauskas spent 12 seasons with the Cavs after being drafted with the 20th pick of the first round in the 1996 NBA draft.

Let the rumors come to you. Follow Scoop du Jour on Twitter or Facebook.

Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel

Related: Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat

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Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh also played the second half of Thursday’s 112-103 loss that dropped the Heat into a 3-2 deficit to the Dallas Mavericks in these best-of-seven NBA Finals.

Even if the box score doesn’t make that particularly clear.

After…

Tags:

Basketball,
Miami Heat,
NBA Finals,
Dwyane Wade,
Rick Carlisle

Jun 10, 2011

|Column| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Got a great idea for a new video game.

Tentative title: Messin’ With the King.

It’s a first-person game where you get to experience what it must feel like to be LeBron James in his first season with the Miami Heat.

Not just dunking and rejecting and…

Tags:

Orlando Magic,
Cleveland Cavaliers,
Rashard Lewis,
NBA,
Dallas Mavericks

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Hay indicios de que los que seleccionan al jugador más valioso (JMV) de la NBA quieren cambiar las reglas del juego y en vez de seleccionar a un jugador al finalizar la temporada regular quieren hacerlo al final de la post-temporada.

Es para tratar de…

Tags:

Basketball,
Tyson Chandler,
Dirk Nowitzki,
Miami Heat,
Dwyane Wade

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

El Heat de Miami podría pasar a la historia como el campeón de la NBA más odiado de todos los tiempos.

Y curiosamente, ese rencor pandémico es el que ha alimentado la voluntad de un quinteto, en el fondo, inocente.

El único pecado de este equipo ha sido…

Tags:

Erik Spoelstra,
NBA,
Dallas Mavericks,
LeBron James,
Derrick Rose

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

What we have here are two days of half empty vs. half full.

The Miami Heat are down 3-2 to the Dallas Mavericks in these best-of-seven NBA Finals. Half empty.

But the final two games of the series are scheduled for AmericanAirlines Arena, starting…

Tags:

Mario Chalmers,
Erik Spoelstra,
Juwan Howard,
NBA Finals,
Udonis Haslem

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The Miami Heat have been here before with Dwyane Wade, an injury to the star guard putting the team’s playoff fate in the balance.

Most notable were the 2005 Eastern Conference finals, when a strained rib muscle left Wade on the losing end of Game 7…

Tags:

Mario Chalmers,
Erik Spoelstra,
NBA Finals,
Dallas Mavericks,
Detroit Pistons

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

SunSentinel.com

Apparently, it’s not enough for LeBron James to deal with questions of fourth-quarter “shrinkage” or a 3-2 deficit in these NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

Over the past two days, the Miami Heat star forward had to deal with scurrilous,…

Tags:

Orlando Magic,
Cleveland Cavaliers,
Rashard Lewis,
NBA Finals,
Radio Industry

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Now, this was more like it.

It took five games, but the fast-paced Dallas Mavericks finally arrived for the NBA Finals. The Mavs looked like an up-tempo, Western Conference team in defeating the Heat 112-103 in Game 5, grabbing a 3-2 lead in the best-of-…

Tags:

Dirk Nowitzki,
NBA Finals,
Dallas Mavericks,
Basketball,
Los Angeles Lakers

Jun 9, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

PRENSA ASOCIADA

Dirk Nowitzki anotó 29 puntos, avanzando hasta meter la volcada de la ventaja con 2:45 en el reloj, y los Mavericks de Dallas superaron el jueves 112-103 al Heat de Miami para adquirir una ventaja de 3-2 en la final de la NBA.

Cinco años después de…

Tags:

Basketball,
Dirk Nowitzki,
Miami Heat,
Dwyane Wade,
NBA

Jun 10, 2011

|Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

South Florida Sun Sentinel

LeBron James didn’t rise to the level of scoring greatness expected or needed. Dwyane Wade wasn’t himself. And now what started for the Miami Heat with last July’s celebration at AmericanAirlines Arena faces the possibility of ending there in June in…

Tags:

Mike Miller,
Udonis Haslem,
Brian Cardinal,
Pat Riley,
Boston Celtics

There is the quick update of the day.