<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MIAMI -- When those toy-store basketballs started bouncing for real at the first NBA practices on our soil, there was really just one place to be. With the redeemed team, naturally. It seemed only proper to begin the new season here, not with any of the four teams holding training camps in Europe but with the team hounded mercilessly last season. I was one of the louder hounds, branding the Heat "soulless" when they bottomed out in February with a 36-point defeat in Dallas. Miami retaliated by unexpectedly hatching a collective soul in early May and went on to win its first-ever championship in Dallas on June 20, erasing what the Chicago Tribune's venerable Sam Smith habitually refers to as a 2.9-games-to-none deficit in the Finals. Tuesday, then, had to belong to the champs, to the team Miami so suddenly became, to Pat Riley's first round of two-a-days, which -- scheduled to end around 3:30 p.m. -- not so surprisingly approached the 5 o'clock hour. The Heat's welcome? A warm one, if you're wondering. A friendly "hello" from Shaquille O'Neal. Patient replies to my questions from Riles. A wink and gotcha grin from Antoine Walker. </div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/trainingcamp...marc&id=2612441
shock horror. I really expected them to say "we're happy with one title. we don't feel the need to repeat"...
