Bird is the Word

It's safe to say Pacers president Larry Bird found his team's second straight loss to the Heat H-A-R-D to take. After the game, he put a spell on his team, so to speak, adding a bit of verbal abuse to the physical pounding the Pacers endured at the hands - and elbows - of the hotheaded Heat. He called his squad "soft" and then spelled it for emphasis. Reporters did not follow-up by asking Bird for the word's etymology and he declined to expound on what he meant by the monosyllabic adjective. We expect Bird will follow the Scripps Bee's rules and not spell again until the next round. We're not the newly christened executive of the year, but we don't understand how insulting your players - whether intentionally or impudently - is a shrewd strategy. That's our F-I-R-M belief.

H-A-R-D is how we would define the Heat's fouls, but only because we don't feel like spelling 'malevolent.' If people were searching for additional reasons to hate the Heat, Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman provided plenty in game 5. Pittman, who must've studied at the Metta World Peace Institute for Excessive Elbowing*, acted as if he was playing Pit-Fighter, not basketball. Thuggish tactics aren't limited to tyros. Haslem and Juwan Howard, veterans who should know better, have both behaved like bullies, retaliating like raging rogues. What's next, brandishing a lance at Lance Stephenson?

*accreditation pending