The Miami Heat are made some moves on Monday when they signed power forward Josh McRoberts and veteran small forward Danny Granger to deals. As the Heat wait on what LeBron James and Chris Bosh do, they added some pieces that could help big time if both return.
The signing of Granger is one that is particularly interesting, though. Granger, 31, hasn't had the best history when it comes to the Heat franchise or even LeBron James in general.
Granger's history with James and Heat is certainly interesting, and it makes the signing pretty funny and ironic.
Take a look at Granger's history with James and Heat here in the next few pages...
Tweeting About the Heat
Like many NBA players and critics, Granger was critical of Miami and their forming of their "Big Three." Granger called the Heat the "New York Yankees of the NBA."
https://twitter.com/dgranger33/statuses/69058288100184064
Trash Talk With LeBron James
This one dates back to when James was on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Skip to about the 1:48 mark in the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNhNjxXDLsA&w=620
LeBron Blocks Danny Granger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXvunyAPAnU&w=620
Granger Answers Back
Granger dunks on King James:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ts78XOBprs&w=620
Granger Tries to Fight LeBron
This happened during the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3644vome63Y&w=620
Granger and LeBron Get Into Confrontation
This happened in the same series during Game 2. Guess LeBron didn't like his headband coming off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A-MW0PwgW0&w=620
LeBron Confronts Granger's "Aggressiveness"
LeBron James clearly got annoyed of Granger's unnecessary aggressiveness on him. James ended up saying this during the series after various confrontations with the then-Indiana Pacers forward.
"Whatever he's trying, it is not working," James said. "He's said he's not scared of LeBron, I want to let [James] know. I guess he's doing it for his own psyche. It's stupid."
Dwyane Wade also jumped in by basically calling Granger a fake tough guy.
"I'm all for standing up for your guys, but certain things you just can't keep doing," Wade said. "My message to Granger was that you just can't keep running up into people's faces for altercations. We're not fighting on this basketball court, so let's not act like we're going to fight. We can be physical and do all that, but certain things got to stop. Are you out here to play basketball or are you out here to be a tough guy?"
Granger replied to all of their comments with this:
"I think there is a line and I'm tiptoeing it. That's a product of the chip on my shoulder and we have on our shoulder as a team of not being respected. That goes not just for this series, but all year. We had the fourth- or fifth-best record in the NBA and I think we only had one televised game. Three or four teams that didn't make the playoffs had more televised games than us. It was just a matter of being disrespected nationally."
Conclusion
Whether you like it or not, Danny Granger is a member of the Miami Heat. I'm definitely sure LeBron, Wade and Bosh have all the past history behind them. I'm sure Granger surely does as well, because why else did he sign with the Heat?
All-in-all, it's pretty funny, though, to see Granger join the Heat after what occurred in year's past. As a Pacers fan, I wish Granger the best of luck. He's always been one of my favorite players.
We'll see if he can return to his old form, which can definitely pay off for the Heat next season.
