Much to my chagrin, the Miami Heat's historic 27-game win streak came to an end last night. As a lifelong fan of the Clippers and underdogs everywhere, I never thought I'd find myself rooting for Goliath, but I couldn't help but grimace as the Heat fell to the Bulls at Chicago's United Center, a court that has seen its share of broken hoop dreams. The second-longest winning streak in North American sports history started Feb. 1, when the defending champions were 28-14. It ended 55 days later with the Heat sporting a record of 55-15.
As Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and company return to South Beach, the end of their uninterrupted run of success will not change how Miami is perceived. Unlike last season, when the national spotlight depicted the Heat as a villainous group of mercenaries, the Heat have been appropriately treated like the brutally efficient and endlessly entertaining defending champions they've come to be.
As Miami drew closer and closer to the 1971-72 Lakers' seemingly untouchable 33-game win streak, the Lebron haters seemed to finally learn to quiet down and appreciate the genius unfolding in front of them. Rather than looking for isolated mistakes, the win streak forced observers to accept this almost perfectly constructed basketball team's utter dominance.
Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said as much before his team ended the historic run: "I mean, everyone is aware [of the streak]," Thibodeau said. "But we're more concerned about them being the defending champion. Everyone is chasing them, regardless of whether there is a streak or no streak."
On the opposite end of the competitive spectrum and the peninsula's opposite seaboard, we find the college basketball story of the year the 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast Eagles' historically unprecedented run to the Sweet 16. FGCU advanced out of the Round of 64 by beating perennial powerhouse and 2nd seeded Georgetown. The upset didn't just display a clash of styles, with Georgetown's conservative style and slow pace matched up against FGCU's "Dunk City," but was a clash of wildly divergent histories.
Georgetown is one of America's preeminent academic institutions, established in 1789, as well as a storied basketball program that made its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1943 and took home the national championship in 1984. In quite a different vein, Florida Gulf Coast was founded in 1991 and started offering classes in 1997. FGCU's basketball team was started in 2002, only becoming a full Division I member of the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2011. This is the first time they qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
In the Round of 32, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles took on the San Diego State Aztecs, roundly defeating the March Madness mainstay out of the Mountain West Conference. Though they remained the underdogs by most official metrics, the buzz surrounding "Dunk City" led many to believe that they were in fact the favorites. The Eagles didn't disappoint, finishing off the Aztecs with a dazzling fusion of individual athleticism and team collaboration.
These two narratives coming out of South Florida share a common characteristic: most people never expected to be rooting for either team. The world has been against Lebron James since the fateful summer day he publicly departed from his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. The world hasn't been rooting for Florida Gulf Coast because, well, we ignored its existence entirely. But in both cases, expectations have been completely shattered and each feat, one lasting 27 games and the other only two, has led basketball fans to rethink their initial perspectives.
If you happened to be watching Florida Gulf Coast and weren't invested in the success of Georgetown or San Diego State, I'm confident you ended up on your feet cheering for the Eagles. In the same manner, a great many spectators without a direct stake in the Heat's nightly opponent inevitably found themselves rooting for Miami to continue their remarkable run. Though some will never abandon their vitriolic hatred of Lebron, there was a sense that King James' standing in basketball history had come into clear focus as Miami's winning streak ended in Michael Jordan's home arena.
In rooting for these teams from South Florida, I'm reminded of a favored adage that appeared this week outside of the Supreme Court: "Don't be on the wrong side of history."
