Wall Street Journal

by Jason Gay



Everyone needs to relax about the Miami Heat. They're going to be just fine. They're going to take the NBA championship. They're going to take every NBA championship. They're going to prove the haters wrong. They're going to capture your heart, perform CPR on a baby polar bear and get your kids into a good college. They're going to coach the Dallas Cowboys. They're going to marry Jennifer Aniston at Cleveland City Hall. Don't panic. They've got this.
You don't know how hard it is, creating the Most Awesome Team in Sports. You've got to please Earth, ESPN, Nike and all those ungrateful scamps at the Greenwich, Conn., Boys & Girls Club. Everyone expects the Heat to win every basketball game. But you can't win every game. You can win, like, six out of your first 10. You know, just like the Golden State Warriors did.
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LeBron James of the Heat shooting over the Raptors' Amir Johnson during their game Saturday in Miami.






The Talent is ensconced in South Beach. LeBron James is one of the best basketball players on the planet. He has joined Dwyane Wade, another one of the best basketball players on the planet. Then there's Chris Bosh, who is…a basketball player on the planet. They earn about $14 million each, and that was after a pay cut. Munificent!
There are also some other Heat players, who are paid in clumps of seaweed and used light bulbs and live in a wheelless van on Ocean Drive.
If you're a Heat fan, don't worry about the halfhearted start. Very soon, the Heat are going to be at least two-thirds hearted. You heard what LeBron said: He may be playing too many minutes. He pointed out that he played 44 minutes in Thursday's loss to Boston. Do you realize Mr. James is 25 years old? It's not like he's 24 or something.
Don't blow that out of proportion, reckless media, always trying to accuse Mr. James of playing 44 minutes against Boston.
The Heat didn't ask for this pressure. It's not like Mr. James sat for an awkward prime-time interview to announce his job change. It's not like the team mounted a bizarre Pink Floyd Laser Show to introduce Messrs. James, Wade and Bosh. And it's not like team president Pat Riley is lurking in the everglades muck below current head coach Erik Spoelstra.
You're the ones with all the wild expectations—70 wins, coherence on offense, or a better nickname for LeBron, Dwyane and Chris than "The Frio Trio."
After that Thursday loss to Boston, the Heat followed up with a 109-100 win over Toronto on Saturday. Serious hoops watchers learned two things that night: that the Heat can recover from adversity and that Toronto still actually has a pro basketball team.
So deep breaths. And stop paying so much attention. Since when did you care about the NBA in November? That's for weirdos who sing to their cats. Start watching in May, like normal people do.
Pat Riley will have it all figured out by then.