SAN ANTONIO — Adam Silver was not convinced that the sauna-like conditions in the T&T Enter (get it? No AC) led to LeBron James’ cramps.
“Did anybody else cramp up?” he asked me as he exited the arena.
The new commissioner’s first game as David Stern’s successor is one that will live in infamy. It was sweltering inside the Spurs’ home arena on a day when the temperature reached almost 100 degrees outside and came close to that inside.
How hot was it inside?
There isn’t an app for that. But if someone had invented the cell phone thermometer and put it into use Thursday night, it probably would have registered in the high 80s. Fans throughout the arena fanned themselves to get some semblance of a breeze, but it was sticky and sweaty and stifling, making you wonder if this was what visiting teams experienced in the old Boston Garden when Red Auerbach was making sure the heaters were working – but only in the visitors’ locker room – after winter had long since passed.
Was it suspicious? Hey, what isn’t suspicious when you are talking about the NBA.
“No, that would take an incredible mind to try to plan that for both teams to be able to go through that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
And the guy with one of the most incredible minds in the building, Gregg Popovich? What did he have to say?
“I’m sure that both teams are going to be happy that we have a couple days before our next game, and hopefully we can pay our bills,” he cracked.
If Pop wasn’t witty enough to come up with that line, there would be those who would claim it was all part of the script. The Spurs know that LeBron James has been susceptible to cramps before, and you never put anything past the Spurs when it comes to gaining a competitive advantage. Even is it is a stretch.
The series does not resume until Sunday, and one would think the Spurs will be able to find an electrician by then. Or someone who knows how to reset a circuit breaker.
And maybe the Miami Heat training staff will figure out a way to keep the best player in the game properly hydrated.
We can also debate the merits of Gatorade, which James refuses to drink, with Powerade, his beverage of choice because he endorses it. Maybe someone will have the temerity to suggest ice water for The King.
What might get lost in all the hubbub about the air conditioning failure is an appreciation for exactly how good the Spurs looked in the fourth quarter when they merely made all six of their 3-pointers, shot 14-for-16 overall and outscored Miami 36-17 to turn what was a close game right until James cramped up into a 110-95 rout.
“It is unfortunate, but these are the kind of things that can happen at live sporting events,” Silver told me.
Inside the Miami locker room, the sauna conditions were especially acute. I have never been to Malaysia during the rainy season, but now I don’t need to.
Told about Silver asking whether anyone else had cramped up, Shane Battier got a huge laugh.
“That is a very smart quote from one of the smartest lawyers on the planet,” Battier said.
Did he think the conditions in the arena had a direct impact on James’ legs cramping up?
“I am not a physiologist, but I would say ‘Yes,'” he said.
The conditions were the same for both teams, so this one has to go in the fair and square column. As NBA president Rod Thorn pointed out, the heat and humidity never caused the playing surface to become slippery, nor was this the first time that an NBA playoff game had been played in less than optimum comfort conditions. Thorn was the GM of the Chicago Bulls when they played their games at the old Chicago Stadium, and that bandbox could get uncomfortable, too – even when Michael Jordan was not the one causing the discomfort.
Truth is, we have become a bit spoiled by the air-conditioned culture in which we work, live and drive. Although the complaints about the heat were legitimate ones, it was not so unbearable that people were passing out.
“The explanation we got was that the air conditioning system essentially failed,” Thorn said, adding that the NBA expects it to be fixed by Sunday.
Still, you couldn’t help but think it was a little fishy that a state that uses more air conditioning than any state other than Florida could have a failure this catastrophic at an event of this magnitude.
“We were told there wasn’t anything that could be done about it,” Thorn said.
James said the training staff gave him fluids, ice bags and cold towels throughout the game, and he even changed into a new uniform at halftime.
But after the cramps first hit and James took a brief rest, he scored on a driving layup to pull Miami within 94-92. Following the bucket, James froze on the baseline and could not move, his left leg spasming painfully.
“The best option for me was not to move. I tried, and any little step or nudge and it would get worse. Best thing for me to do was not to move,” said James, who said he hadn’t played in such conditions since high school or his CYO days.
For Silver, this Finals game will go down as a memorable one, especially since it was his first. And as the facts come out over the next couple days, the guess here is that this will eventually be remembered as a debacle.
They couldn’t fix a broken air conditioner in Texas? Really? I know it is a big air conditioner – this being Texas, where everything is bigger – but can we also include the failure to fix it as something that is bigger than it would have been in a cold-weather state?
Luckily for the commish, he does not work for the company that makes Powerade. Those folks have some explaining to do, too, just like the arena maintenance folks who could not get the air conditioning to work.
In Texas.
Where it is unbearably hot nine months out of the year.
Yeah, it’s a little fishy.
But to paraphrase the commissioner, fishy things happen when you play live sporting events. And heat beating the Heat? Makes you go “hmmmm,” doesn’t it?
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.