Miami Heat Point Guards Wearing Wristbands Containing Team Plays

The Miami Heat are taking this football thing to the next level, with their young point guards now wearing quarterback-inspired wristbands to help them with the offensive learning curve. Reports the Sun-Sentinel: “[Erik] Spoelstra has given Miami Heat point guards Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole wristbands with the team’s play calls on it to wear in practices and shootarounds. ‘It looks just like the quarterbacks,’ [Mario] Chalmers said, ‘something that Peyton Manning or one of them would wear.’ The wristbands were given to the point guards within the past two weeks to help them learn Miami’s system. ‘It’s not a gimmick,’ Spoelstra said. ‘It’s just to assist them. They both feel like they’re quarterbacks, and we want them to be quarterbacks out there. Mentally, if that helps them think like a quarterback in directing our team, that is good.’ It is particularly useful for [Norris] Cole, who is a rookie and went through a shortened training camp because of the lockout. But even for Chalmers, who is now playing in his fourth season with the Heat, the wristband has become a helpful tool to help him remember the team’s play calls. ‘You don’t have to look at it,’ Chalmers said. ‘But it’s just something if you get stuck or something and you need to call a different play, you can look down at it if you need to.’”