HEATcast: Tupac and Father's Day Is Therapy for Losing the NBA Finals

Bloggers from the Miami Heat Index, HeatFreak.com and Hot Hot Hoops celebrated Tupac Shakur’s 40th birthday, discussed how the Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals, the reactions of players and fans and Father’s Day.

You can listen to the podcast right here or three other ways:

• By downloading it,
• Subscribing to the RSS feed or
• Going to iTunes.

The Cast:

• Mosi Platt from the Miami Heat Index
• Alfredo Arteaga from HeatFreak.com
• Danny Martinez, Contributing Writer for Hot Hot Hoops
• Surya Fernandez, Managing Editor for Hot Hot Hoops

The Synopsis:
The podcast began with a tribute to Tupac Shakur and the Dallas Mavericks and then the following topics were discussed:

• How do you feel about the Heat losing? Was this season a failure?
• How did the Heat lose the NBA Finals?
• Why were the Mavs successful in the Finals?
• Who were the key players in the Finals?
• Was Spoelstra out-coached by Carlisle in the Finals?
• What could the Heat have done to win the Finals?
• Dwyane Wade was named a recipient of a 2011 Fatherhood Award™. The bloggers discussed some of the favorite Heat memories they had with their fathers and children this season.

Fernandez said one of his favorite memories as a father this season was watching his daughter imitate LeBron James’ pre-game ritual with her little brother’s baby powder.

Martinez said one of his favorite memories from this season was going to the Thunder-Heat game with his dad and watching Wade dunk on Kendrick Perkins.

Arteaga said some of his favorite memories with his father this season were hearing about the Heat struggles in the Peruvian news and hearing about Chile rooting for the Heat as they became the team of Latin America. The memory of his daughter asking him, “Why did the Heat lose Daddy?” stuck with him, too.

Fernandez also said his father’s a soccer fan, but he’ll never forget when he took him to the Lakers championship parade in 1987 and got him a t-shirt of Lakers caricatures.

Platt said his father was a big Lakers fan, too and his favorite memory with his dad this season was that they were both finally rooting for the same team again after nearly 15 years.

CORRECTION: My father wanted to set the record straight on his fandom. In his own words, "I became a Laker fan when Wilt joined the team in 1968 (was always a Wilt fan). Magic was a nice addition to a club that was struggling to win big games, even with Kareem, the 2nd greatest center of all time. Also, I follow the Heat because of D-Wade, have always liked his heart. Not a big fan of LJ. Thanks for the shout-out, made an old fan feel good."

What are your favorite Heat memories with your father or children this season? Leave them in the comments section or send them on Twitter to @MIA_Heat_Index.

This podcast was inspired by E.J. Fischer.