Dwyane Wade knows a thing or 2 about leadership. He also knows a thing or 2 about some rough play. Wade’s no stranger to hard hits, he’s also no rookie in this league, he’s been around the block a few times.
Now when the Miami Heat faced off against the Boston Celtics, it was an important matchup of 2 teams fighting for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. The defending champion Heat have struggled with injuries all season and the Celtics have tried to concede this season to a tank but the players on the team had other ideas.
The 2 teams went at it and Boston pulled off a victory in a tight game that went wrong for the Heat, thanks in part to a dirty play by Hassan Whiteside.
A clearly angry Whiteside chased Olynyk who was helping baseline on defense, and drove his forearm into the back of Olynyk’s neck/head area. Whiteside received a flagrant-2 foul for the hit on Olynyk and the ejection was well deserved as Olynyk could’ve been hurt very badly.
According to Olynyk, the hit wasn’t warranted at all.
Kelly Olynyk on Whiteside hit: "I don't even know what happened there… I just got up." Says they weren't jawing.
— Ethan J. Skolnick (@EthanJSkolnick) March 10, 2015
Now the Heat’s leader, Dwyane Wade, had some choice words for Whiteside and the actions he took against Olynyk.
Following from Chris Wittyngham of 104.3 The Ticket in Miami.
He’s had enough veteran advice. There comes a time where you have to do it yourself. There’s only so many words people can continue to say to you. You gotta do it. Not for you, you gotta do it for the other guys in here that you see sacrificing. That you see out there playing hurt and all the things that are going on. You’re a part of a team. You’re part of an oganization. We all have our moments, selfish moments. But you can’t continue to keep having them, because you gotta be reliable and you gotta be able to be counted on. And right now, if he continues to act that way then he’s not reliable
It’s just a bonehead play for Whiteside. There’s a vast difference between being tough, playing guys hard and just being straight up violent and potentially costing your team a game. In a very important contest, that requires a win to get a better playoff spot, Whiteside got ejected. The guy who is supposed to help with the loss of Chris Bosh with his rebounding and defense, got ejected. Whiteside needs to wake up and notice what’s important to his team, not just his personal exploits.
