Earlier this week the NBA made history by announcing they would be the first American professional sports league to travel to Cuba.
Via Yahoo:
The league’s four-day camp, held April 23 through 26, will feature Steve Nash and Dikembe Mutombo and has been sold as an opportunity to use basketball as a means of creating cultural understanding, although the public relations boost from serving as the forefront of a mostly popular political decision likely has its benefits, as well.
The decision to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba has been extremely unpopular with Cuban Americans, who are a prominent part of the Miami’s population. This might be why the Miami Heat are hesitant to participate in any camps the NBA might host in Cuba. Not to mention the organization was completely blindsided by the NBA.
Heat officials learned of the story via news reports, and were dumbfounded that the league would not have first spoken, at least as a courtesy, to the one franchise actually affected by any NBA/Cuba relationship.
Heat owner Micky Arison and club president Pat Riley declined a Miami Herald interview request Wednesday, but another team executive told us, “The NBA never consulted with us. This was undertaken unilaterally. The minute we found out we registered our vehement objection to the league office. Neither the Heat nor any personnel will be participating.” […]
There is logic to the NBA thinking Cuba is just another signpost in the growing of its global brand. There even is logic to the Heat, under different circumstances, perhaps desiring to grow its brand to the south — much as the Marlins and more recently the Dolphins have made efforts to expand their fan bases into the Caribbean and South America. It makes sense, if only geographically.
Geographically it makes sense — Miami to Cuba is less than an hour flight. But again, is it worth offending a part of your loyal fan base who will vehemently object to forming a relationship with a country still led by the Castro regime? A regime that likely directly impacted their lives?
As of right now the Miami Heat organization is saying no.