On that November 27th day, the Heat were coming off a painful loss to the Dallas Mavericks. This led to the infamous "shove" in the third quarter that James had on Spoelstra. They had a meeting a few days after in November, but December is where their relationship started connecting dots.
"It was a reminder for both of us that we have to manage all the noise outside and keep it to what's real," Spoelstra said. "The only things that matter are the people in the locker room. At the end of the day, a lot of the noise will be pointed in our direction.
"It was probably one of the steps when we started to develop a deeper trust [with each other]. We were in a similar boat together and it wasn't about us. And we needed to be able to manage that and not let it be a distraction."
Spoelstra loved how James was able to handle the media and continue to lead the Heat to success.
"He's been a lightning rod," Spoelstra said. "He's done a very good job of compartmentalizing all of that and to just be a member of the team."
But the Heat are doing great now, as they finished with the second seed with a 58-24 record and currently are taking a 2-0 lead over the Philadelphia 76ers in the playoffs.
So far, things are all going good.
Great to see these two finally connect and make things right.
