This must be what it’s like to be on vacation with your first love after finally reuniting, only to hear that your recently departed fiancee-that you walked away from-is on the same island as well.
The Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers have a preseason game in Rio on Saturday, but According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, the two teams have spent the past few days avoiding each other.
Perhaps members of the opposing delegations will run into each other at a restaurant, club or tourist attraction. But it sure sounds like any such fraternization would be by chance. For as much as the players on both sides want to downplay it, there’s no missing the chill running between these two teams right now.
“We’re trying to build our chemistry with our team,” Dwyane Wade said. “So the little time we have, we’re trying to focus on the Miami Heat.”
“It’s going to be special to see those guys on Saturday,” James said. “But we’re here to work.”
“We’ll see each other on the court,” Chris Bosh said. “That’s plenty of time to catch up.”
“We haven’t talked to those guys, at least I haven’t, since we’ve been here,” Mario Chalmers said. “It’s like Miami 2.0 over there, basically.”
Windhorst pointed out that, before they were teammates, James and Wade used to meet up during the season when they were both in the same city.
The awkwardness of the reunion and bitterness felt by some Heat players have apparently made fraternizing in Rio impossible.