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As the Heat Rises - Memos and V8's

Saturday afternoons at American Airlines Arena are generally of the quiet sort in the NLL offseason. Heat Owner Micky Arison lets himself into the GM’s office and takes a seat and patiently waits for him to finish his phone conversation. “…. Yes Prim I understand sweetheart. You were great out there …. (chatter from the other end of the phone) “baby you made it to the final round of cuts. That’s beyond impressive and you had virtually no prep time.” (more chatter) Craig looks at Micky with with an exasperated expression but continues his consoling tone. “Primmie, I can assure you that you did fine, I am sorry you didn’t make the dance team. I will make it up to you to…” the phone goes dead and Craig just flips the phone on the desk in moderate frustration. He looks over at Micky who is somehow looking at him with disapproval and managing to stifle a barrel of laughter at the same time. They both simultaneously began crowing with laughter unable to hold it any longer. Between guffaws Micky was saying “Man, you got a firecracker there.” Regaining some of his composure Craig said “Man their all firecrackers didn’t you know?” “Ain’t that the truth!” both men sip their Waiakea bottled waters and start to get down to business. Micky pulls out his tablet and punches up something and flips the Asus Memo Pad 10 around so that Craig can see. “The annual rule changes have hit the inboxes buddy. What say you!?” Not really being able to see the actual content of the email from that distance. But being very familiar with it after having studied and strategized around it for hours after its initial release. Craig looked at Micky with a mock look of dread and in a voice that was low and touched with trepidation he said “The Minions are Coming.” Laughter again boomed out of them and at the same time team President Pat Riley walked through the door. A less confident man would have suspected that he was the subject of whatever joke had just been told. But the slick haired, Armani sporting Riley was unflappable and knew those two characters well enough to know that he was just spared the torcher of hearing some corny pointless joke. “Can’t you guys be serious for 2 seconds while we get this meeting underway?” he said. Trying to stifle his laughter and in a very bad Scottish accent. Craig announced “I am giving her all she’s got Captain. But the Minions… They just keep multiplying.” Riley could not himself at this point and he began laughing as well. Pulling up a chair as well they start going over the strategy that Craig will use to take the Miami Heat from the good team they were last year to the Great team they will be this coming season. Down in the Heat’s training room. Rudy Gay is just finishing a workout and is preparing to meet Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel for lunch at Shula’s Steak House. Interviews with Ira are very noninvasive and it’s more like a conversation instead of the probe into your life Q&A sessions that most other reports prefer. As Rudy leaves the arena parking lot in his SRT Hellcat the cars purring 700 horsepower Hemi V8 along with 3 6 Mafia track pumping through his 8 speaker stereo has him feeling a little hype and he is anticipating opening up the Challenger on the Causeway headed to South Beach across the bay. As Rudy swings right onto McArthur Causeway the Challnger glides through the turn like a figure skater at the Winter Olympics. 3 6 Mafia is blaring and he fades into that same zone he is in when the basket looks like it is the size of a city dumpster and he can’t miss a shot even if he tried. Juicy J is ripping the first verse and Rudy is bobbing his head and rapping along” They call me the Juice and you know I'mma stunt Riding in the car with some bump in the trunk Tone in my lap and you know it's a pump Breaking down the good green, rolling the blunt Ghetto pimp type, girls say I'm the man Ice on the wrist with the ice in the chain Riding through the hood, got me gripping the grain And I'm sipping the same, while I'm changing the lane Eyes real tight cause I'm choking the green Vision messed up, cause I'm drinking the lean Messing with a D-Boy, riding them big toys Make your main gal wanna get on my team She gotta give it up before she get in my car I ain't Denzel, but I know I'm a star Cause when I'm in the club, I be back in the fog In the V.I.P. part and be buying the bar The Hemi is thirsty and Rudy serves it a downshift and presses the accelerator ever closer to the floor plate and the Hellcat bounces forward like horse out of the starting gate of the Belmont Stakes. The Charcoal black Dodge swished past Jungle Island with the 6+ liter V8 roaring like a hungry jungle cat and sweeping through the 10 and 20 degree turns like a slithering snake trying to escape the excess desert heat. Rudy couldn’t help but think how quickly other cars on the road become road obstacles and hazards when you are excessively exceeding the speed limit. But his athlete’s reflexes along with the Dodge Sport suspension package allowed him to guide the car around the slower motorist who were traveling about 60 miles per hour like they were parallel parked. As he blitzed past “Star Island” he began his downshifting and breaking as he rolled the muscle car through a 30 degree left turn that led into South Beach proper. As he floated to the stop light he was still doing a slow head bob to “Stay Fly” by 3 6 Mafia and was really looking forward to a Porterhouse right at that moment. As he rolled into the Shula Steak House parking lot on Collins Avenue he could see that Ira was just arriving as well and had noticed him pulling in. As he let the valet take “Panthro” into the main parking area the site of his own car driving off without him was always somewhat unsettling. But the sound of the duel exhaust Hemi always gave him goose bumps. He turned and greeted Ira with a smile, handshake and customary bro hug. Ira has been around a long time and seen dozens of superstar players come through the Heat’s doors. But none of them were as important as Rudy Gay is right now and with the new rule changes and Rudy currently being a free agent. He can’t help but wonder this is the end of a really short era or the next step in the current one. Ira looked at Rudy before they walked through the doors and ask him,”You ready to eat” Rudy announced “Damn Skippy, lets do it slick”