Most elite athletes' No. 1 goal is to make the playoffs and contend for a championship. Sometimes, reaching that goal isn't as satisfying as it should be.
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade says going through the two-month NBA playoffs is a grind and not worth the trouble, USA Today is reporting.
Unless his team wins the ultimate prize.
"Playoffs ain't fun, man," the Miami Heat guard said. "I'm sorry to bust anyone on the outside's bubble. As a player in the playoffs, you have no joy until it's over and you won. If you don't win, you have no joy for a while. So for us it's the grind every day as a team of trying to win the series, trying to win four games in the series."
Part of Wade's mood could be tied to a balky knee that has kept him out of one playoff game so far this postseason and has affected his play throughout.
"It's only once you get out on the court and you figure it out," he said. "A couple of nights, I (came) out before the game, I thought, 'Oh yeah, this is my night.' I got out there and it was 'Oh no, it's not.' ... You're on the basketball court; you have to do whatever you have to do. You have to make some kind of positive impact while you're on the basketball floor. If you can't make a positive impact, then you need to sit down.
"So when I'm out there, some moments I'm scoring, some moments I'm rebounding, some moments I'm doing other things on the basketball floor to try to make a positive impact to give ourselves a chance to win the ballgame. And that's all you can do.
The Heat, who had a 27-game winning streak during the 2012-13 season and have been considered the NBA's best team since winning the championship last year, has struggled at times during this year's playoffs.
They had a tough, five-game series against the undermanned Chicago Bulls, who still pushed Miami farther than anyone expected with their grit and determination.
The Indiana Pacers then took the Heat to a physically and mentally draining seven-game series before the defending champions prevailed.
Now, San Antonio has claimed the first game of the NBA Finals, putting even more pressure on the Heat.
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