There’s really only one legit rivalry in the NBA these days, and it’s the same one that has existed since before forever, the Lakers and the Celtics. Gone are the days when Jordan and the Bulls battled the Knicks and gone are the days when John Starks and Reggie Miller played like they wanted to kill each other, that’s all over. Everybody seems to get along all too well in the NBA. It seems that’s all about to change in the Eastern Conference.
I know it’s early, but you can mark November 24th on your calandar, that’s the first regular season game between the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic. The entire offseason has been about the Miami Heat and Stan Van Gundy can’t stand it.
In an interview he took a shot at the Miami Heat and Espn saying, “Espn is all Miami Heat all the time”, truth be told, he’s right. But Van Gundy’s bitterness to towards the Heat runs far deeper than the media hype surrounding the team. When the Miami Heat won the NBA championship in 2006, Van Gundy was the coach that was ousted by Pat Riley that December. Riley ended up winning the championship with what should have been Van Gundy’s team. You can tell Van Gundy still carries that bitterness. Even the owner of the Magic doesn’t like the Heat.
Earlier this month Riley fired back at Magic Owner Otis Smith and Stan Van Gundy over earlier comments over the major Heat free agent signings, Riley questioned when the two had become the “moral conscious or moral authority’’ of players in the NBA.
Van Gundy would later fire back with his own comments and this feud continues to get uglier and more bitter each passing day. Make no mistake, the Orlando Magic shouldn’t have to put up with all this Heat hype especially since they are the team that has been the powerhouse in the East. Now when these two teams, we’ll finally get to watch a heated regular season rivalry, where both teams will be playing for more than just points in the standings, they’ll be playing for pride, which is what it used to be all about. As for the Heat, they start making a list of the teams that hate them now, because that giant bullseye that has been painted on their back after all of their offseason ‘punk moves’ isn’t going away anytime soon.
