miami heat nba finals Archives

CNN’s Rachel Nichols: photos and bio

During the NCAA Tournament, sports are certainly getting their Rachel Nichols fix. Rachel Nichols is with CNN, part of the Turner Sports family which is broadcasting much of the tourney. Sports fans and media consumers everywhere used to joke that every time Brett Favre moved, sneezed, went to the bathroom or even breathed- ESPN’s Rachel Nichols was there. I’m speaking of course about Favre’s three year period in which he retired/unretired 1,298 times and held the media and fan bases of the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New York Jets hostage.

Later the Rachel Nichols joke applies to the soon to be NBA champion Miami Heat.

BTW, isn’t that screen grab above just priceless (photo credit here)

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Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra is a very Underrated Coach

Following one of their three regular season losses to the Chicago Bulls, a couple of current members of the Miami Heat broke down in tears. But none of the three regular season losses (by a combined 8 points) were as emotional or as lopsided as Sunday night’s 21 point drubbing in game one of the Eastern Conference Finals.

A beat-down like that has more inspiration for sobbing than a supermarket section of onions.

But at the time, the mood among the very talented team from South Beach was not one of despair though- instead it’s resilience, focus and ambition.

“We all know obviously the effort plays, the second-chance opportunities — all those things really deflated our focus and our concentration and effort there in the second half. With all that said, and with all the evaluations about the game, we are still in a position to take control with a win on Wednesday,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said.

And take control they did- not just of the Eastern Conference, but also the NBA Finals as well.

By Paul M. Banks

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