Just imagine, for a brief moment, that you, Chris Bosh, and me, some guy, are having a conversation. You were a perennial All-Star, albeit on a Canadian team, which is akin to being a really nice painting hanging in an attic. Forget the talent, and the millions of dollars. All that is great, but all you’ve really wanted was respect. You’ve craved it, actually. And so, even though fans continually demanded to see you at the NBA Midwinter Classic (I just made that name up) you jumped at the chance to move to Miami to play with your boys, D-Wade and Bron, and to win a ring that you’d [...]

It’s the definition of a soft opening. The Miami Heat is kicking off the NBA season tonight in Boston, versus the Celtics, instead of in “South Beach”, where the franchise’s love of towering flames would have made for great TV, and where three of the NBA’s ten best players could bask in the certain love of the home crowd.

But NBA schedule makers aren’t clueless. Having media outlets ripping a tasteless pyrotechnic display in a relatively tasteless city would start the Heat off on the wrong foot, and not be at all helpful in rebranding the team as less of a prefab Eastern Conference power and more of a Stand [...]