MIAMI — This notion of a highly heated Miami-Orlando rivalry is nothing new, though the perceived level of venom between the NBA teams may be higher than ever.
With arenas separated by 235 miles and no shortage of heated moments dotting their history, the teams meet tonight in Miami’s home opener.
LeBron James and Chris Bosh will be welcomed again to South Florida, and the Magic know it’ll get a chilly reception in Miami.
“We’re trying,” Magic center Dwight Howard said, “to take their heads off.”
It has been that kind of a summer, months of verbal jousting that upped the ante and set the stage for even higher drama. Today, talk will finally be cheap.
A week after the teams’ preseason game was canceled because of a slippery court in Tampa, Fla., an icy relationship is set to resume.
“Anything that creates interest in the NBA, anything that creates interest in basketball particularly in this state, as far as I’m concerned, is fantastic,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. “I think our team’s pretty highly motivated anyway. I think they have been for the last three years. I don’t really think they needed a motivation boost. I don’t think motivation has ever been our problem and won’t be this year.”
Not that the Heat-Magic rivalry lacked inspiration. There’s history, plenty of it.
Greg Kite and Rony Seikaly threw roundhouse punches at each other. Keith Askins spit toward the Orlando bench in retaliation for being targeted with hard fouls. Chris Gatling challenged Shaquille O’Neal to a fight. The Van Gundy chapter, when the Magic needed to dig deeply into its pockets just to pry him from his Heat contract and so it could hire him as coach.
And those are just a few historical highlights.
“There’s always been something there,” Heat forward Udonis Haslem said.
Footnotes.
Timberwolves forward Kevin Love said he and coach Kurt Rambis are fine and that any speculation about a rift over his lack of playing time has been blown out of proportion.
• The Grizzlies exercised contract options on guard O.J. Mayo, forward Darrell Arthur and center Hasheem Thabeet.
• Cavs forward Anderson Varejao was excused from traveling with the Cavaliers to Toronto so he could be with his father during heart surgery.
