http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Arnpz8407H9r5tbCNt0ieDq8vLYF?slug=ap-heat-waitingforwade About 150 Heat employees showed up in caravan of four buses at the camp at Nova Southeastern University. They formed a semicircle around the front entrance, most wearing Wade shirts and jerseys. When Wade came down the stairs and saw the group waiting for him, he broke into a wide smile, then walked through the front door with both hands raised as the employee chanted: “We want Wade! We want Wade!” “I see I can’t get rid of you all,” Wade told the group. He went back inside less than a minute later without taking questions. 1. Actually made contact with FA 2. Sent A LOT of people 3. Had no problem traveling short distance within state 3. Got a reaction from FA Misson accomplished.
They sent Heat employees? 150 of them? Bah. Probably no difference to Wade, sending Heat employees is not the same as sending fans. Not that 150 fans would have made a difference either
....yes but the story before this one was the Heat tried to assemble a bunch of fans to meet Wade at the airport and Wade changed flight plans last minute and left all those assembled waiting for an appearance he never showed up to. Yes, ultimately the Heat accomplished the mission, but not after failing at it the first time.
this is after the failure http://deadspin.com/5579777/dwyane-wade-makes-loyal-fans-feel-like-kicked-puppies "Dwyane Wade Makes Loyal Fans Feel Like Kicked Puppies"
I don't see a problem with it. I think it would be fun to be involved with welcoming a big name FA in town - a hell of a lot better than reading about it on a twitter feed. ...also it seems like a good PR move to get the fanbase invested to make that connection to their FA acquisitions. When fans can make that personal connection to a player by inviting them into the community, the teams ultimately benefit from a more interested fan(goes to games, watches on TV, buys merch, etc)....and if it backfires, the blames shifts more to the FA rather than management.
Yeah, but at least they tried again. Their excuse for the first failed attempt was also legit, as oppose to what the rockets came up with. It was truly a last minute change of plans.
....maybe I missed the story somewhere else, but I was under the impression Bosh's agent deliberately led Houston astray because he didn't want Houston to talk to him. I wouldn't fault Morey for some a-hole agent screwing up those fan's welcome caravan. I mean the Rockets caravan thing made NBA.com's front page so his agent must have known and decided he had to screw them to "protect" his client. Pretty selfish if you ask me but not Bosh or Morey's fault.
This was a big free agency and they have been talking about it for the last 2 or 3 years. I don't think we will be seeing this every off-season.
brilliant... one more thing people are copying the Rockets on. We ARE the trend setter. we adopted heavy analytics... people are peaking in and copying us there I'm sure. we did the caravan... they copied us there... we did the IPAD... people copied us there... Morey is cutting edge in everything.
Well yeah, but the difference is the Heat got it done despite the changes. We had the same scenario, different result.
