Glen Rice found out this week that he holds the Miami Heat franchise record for consecutive games played. Now, with Duncan Robinson about to erase him from the team’s record book within days, Rice wishes someone would have told him back in 1994.
It was on April 2 of that year when Rice was held out of a loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden because of the flu. He would return the following game, play the final 10 games of that season, as well as all 82 in ’94-95 before being traded to the Charlotte Hornets in a package for Alonzo Mourning.
That single absence ended his franchise-record streak at 174 consecutive regular-season games. Had he played that night in New York, his record would have been 267.
For Robinson, Wednesday night’s appearance against the Milwaukee Bucks at FTX Arena extends his streak to 173, with the opportunity to tie Rice’s record Saturday night against the visiting Chicago Bulls and break it in Monday night’s road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
When Rice broke Grant Long’s record of 161 consecutive appearances earlier in 1993-94, no one told him of the record. Not then. Not since. Not until this week, as it is about to be erased.
“That’s what’s so funny, to be finding out now,” said Rice, who works for the Heat as a scout and community ambassador. “It was hard for me to miss games, but I didn’t realize I was up there as far as consecutive games played.
“If I knew I had a record, I would have damn sure tried to play.”
Instead, Willie Burton started in his place on that April night in 1994.
And now Robinson is about to take Rice’s place in the Heat record book.
“I’m glad it’s Duncan because he’s a Michigan guy,” Rice said of his fellow former Wolverine 3-point specialist. “It’s hard to get us to miss games.
“And that just shows you the dedication that he has. He wants to be on the floor every minute, every second that he can possibly be. That’s just the type of person he is. And that’s great. I’m happy for him. Records are made to be broken and kudos to him.”
Of course, the times were different when Rice was playing under Ron Rothstein and Kevin Loughery.
That one night in New York was the lone game Rice missed over a three-season span from 1992 to ’95.
Back then, there was no such thing as load management, prescheduled days off for rest.
“Let me tell you, if I went to Kevin and asked for a night off to rest,” Rice said with a laugh, “I might have been the first player that had a guaranteed contract that would have gotten cut.
“Kevin would have looked at me crazy, like, ‘Yeah, right.’ He would have created some new words for that.”
And it wasn’t as if Loughery didn’t already offer plenty of salty ones.
“But that was us,” he said. “Back then, you had to come and tell us two or three times, ‘Hey, look, no, you’re not playing tonight, because you got half a leg.’ “
Then again, to put into perspective the record Robinson is one the verge of breaking, consider that the all-time NBA record for consecutive regular-season games played is 1,192 by A.C. Green, a streak that ironically came to an end under current Heat President Pat Riley when Riley was coaching the Heat in 2001. The next-longest streaks are 906 by Randy Smith and 844 by Johnny “Red” Kerr.
As for Rice, he said it is easy to let go of something he only days ago learned he owned.
“I’m happy for Duncan. This year hasn’t been the typical Duncan year,” Rice said, with Robinson’s 3-point percentage down, especially at home, “but hopefully having this can bring his confidence back around.”
