CHICAGO | You can't hate the Miami Heat. Sorry. I tried for most of this season. I really did.
I had pictured them as spoiled little rich kids, whining and spitting out their silver spoons whenever the limo driver hit a pot hole.
Can't do it any more. It's wrong.
This is not a bunch of pampered, egotistical, South Beach wannabes whose owner is trying to buy a title. Turns out, the Miami Heat roster is loaded with good guys like Mike Miller; talented players who care deeply for each other and the less fortunate.
Most have their own foundations set up. Many teams do, but Heat players were doing this long before it became fashionable.
Chris Bosh works with corporations that help middle schools in 13 cities across the country.
Mario Chalmers established "Mario's Closet" -- a specialty shop offering free and low-cost accessories for cancer patients.
Udonis Haslem provides school uniforms and school supplies to school-age children that are homeless, victims of domestic abuse, and in foster care.
Jamaal Magloire does extensive charity work for children's hospitals in Toronto. In the summer of 2010, he paid the funeral costs of murder victim Lucria Charles, a 28-year-old single mom he did not know, and set up a fund for her 7-year-old special needs son Mataeo.
Miller and wife Jennifer recently donated $1 million to an endowment fund for Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D., his birthplace.
Chicago natives Dwyane Wade and Juwan Howard are known for their work with inner city children.
The Bulls said all season they're ready to "walk through the fire" together in times of adversity.
Well, the Heat didn't all meet on a blind date.
0 comments:
Post a Comment