Wade says Heat are NOT the team to beat

Dwyane (that's not a typo) Wade says that despite the new All-star cast that has been put together down in South Beach, the Miami Heat should not be considered favorites to win the 2011 NBA title.
"The Lakers are the champs and we know they're very good," Wade said. "That's the team everybody is shooting for and they should be. Not the Miami Heat."


While Wade may be trying to downplay what has transpired in recent days, make no mistake everyone will be putting a big circle around the Miami games on their schedules. Various other players have been asked for their opinions, and most of them seem to give the same canned response that they think it is great and all three guys did what is best for them. Whatever. You can't tell me that these guys can't wait to kill the Heat and hope that this whole thing is a bust. The NBA has a villain...and it is the Miami Heat!

Not to mention, I really don't think that the fans in Miami want to hear from the face of their franchise that they aren't the favorites to win after the huge expense they just went to and the whole overblown welcome party and such. That is...if they're even paying attention. Plenty of boobs and bikinis to distract fans from basketball in the off-season.

I do agree with Wade though. The Lakers are still the team to beat, and I still think the Eastern Conference crown is going through Boston one way or the other. This 3-man team has some work cut out for them.

Word has it they've recently inked Big Z, Zydrunas Ilgauskas to a contract and that Mike Miller is expected to sign in the coming days. It will be interesting to see what kind of team they put together and if anyone wants to play on a team where they will never touch the ball just to win a title.


*Just a sidenote. Has anyone else noticed how incredibly uncomfortable LeBron looks in all these photos and video clips. It's like he's thinking "did I really fucking do this?" Is it even possible that he was naive to the backlash that would happen if he left Cleveland??? He seems blind-sided by it all.