The Miami Heat culture has been mentioned around the league nonstop, getting more and more attention in recent years, with the team showing they are ready to do anything to win and let rivals know that they'll have a hard time trying to bring them down.
Every player who's joined the team has had to embrace this culture, and if it's too much for them, the exit doors are open. No matter who you are, the team always keeps everybody in check so that they do not mess anything up. Not even LeBron James was safe from this, as the former Heat player once was prevented from taking people to the team's locker room.
According to former assistant coach David Fizdale, that's the moment when James learned about the Heat culture and how seriously everybody took things over there. During a recent interview on Knuckleheads, Fizdale had this to say:
"LeBron had to hear the truth. He had to conform to the Heat way, we couldn't be his way. It was really important that he had that's always been for him. Even though we lost that first year, it was little stuff that would take place that was really cruel. I remember LeBron was hot about something that was counter to our culture. I don't know if he was with some guys he wanted to come into our locker room. I forgot what it was, and you know, we didn't let nobody in the building, it was something like that. And I just remember walking to the locker room, and LeBron was talking to a couple of guys in the locker room. It was UD [Udonis Haslem] and D-Wade. And both of them, as I was through, both go, 'Nah, we don't do it like that here. This is our space. If you wanna hang out with them, you do it over there. But this is how we do it here, and when we come here, this is just for us.'"
Fizdale explained that going to Miami was beneficial for LeBron, as he learned what it took to win and had people willing to tell him 'no' whenever he needed to hear it. After a collapse in the first season in South Beach, LeBron bounced back and won two consecutive championships before losing in his last season in Miami. It was an interesting tenure for James, who has won with every team he's played for and is looking to get more.
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