Miami Heat fans are likely never beating the allegations.
Oklahoma City Thunder big man Chet Holmgren appeared this week on the “Road Trippin'” podcast. During the episode, Holmgren was asked about his favorite opposing arenas to play in. The first team that Holmgren mentioned was the Miami Heat … for a ruthless reason.
“I like Miami,” said Holmgren. “Because it’s just, like, empty.”
“Road Trippin'” co-host Channing Frye then said, “We know what you mean. They come in late.”
“So really as the away team, you just gotta build that lead in the first three quarters, and then it just stays quiet for the fourth,” Holmgren added.
You can see the full clip below.
The Heat faithful do have a reputation for being late-arriving, fair-weather fans. Part of that reputation stems from the infamous scene in the 2013 NBA Finals when they left early and missed Ray Allen’s game-tying three-pointer in the closing seconds of Game 6 (subsequently getting denied re-entry too).
In games of lesser gravity as well, Miami fans are notorious for arriving tardy to the arena. Even Heat star Jimmy Butler recently admitted in an interview that he would prefer it if the team’s fans arrived earlier to games.
In fairness to Heat fans, Holmgren (who missed his entire rookie year due to injury) has only played one regular season game in Miami so far during his NBA career, so he might not have the biggest sample size to work with. Heat fans can also be pretty loud when they are uniting against a common enemy.
