Miami Heat’s Norman Powell Channels Michael Jordan’s Iconic Flu Game In FIBA

“The last 48 hours after game one was a lot of good and a lot of bad,” Powell said. “During the game, I was feeling very fatigued, body sore, and I thought it was just being tired from jet lag. After that, I got a little treatment done, and I started throwing up. Then bad stomach pains, diarrhea, and really sick. Some type of food poisoning, and something I don’t know what it is, but I went from that to being bedridden all the way up until game two.”

Despite feeling very sick, Powell displayed plenty of toughness and leadership because he didn’t want to leave his teammates alone in a must-win game for the pre-qualifiers to advance in the group stage of FIBA.

“I’m always a person that’s going to lay it all out there,” Powell continued. “I always talk about going out on my shield. I had a mission and a goal in mind when committing to this team and helping them advance.”

ESPN ANALYST REPORTEDLY “BORED” WITH MIAMI HEAT DESPITE SUCCESSFUL OFFSEASON

After two consecutive postseason failures, the Miami Heat have to outperform expectations again to return to their contender status. Without a true superstar to replace Jimmy Butler, their path back to the Conference Finals remains in doubt.

On the All NBA Podcast, Tim Legler broke down how the acquisition of Norman Powell may not be enough to raise the Heat’s win total from last year.

“He’s going to bring something to their team because he had his best year of his career offensively,” Legler said. “He’s always been a guy who plays hard defensively. I guess on that alone, maybe you think there’s an uptick because they were at 37 last year. They add Norman Powell, so you think 38.5 should do it. You know what it is for me? I think I’m just a little bit bored with the Heat.”

Powell should drastically help their offensive struggles because Tyler Herro was the only player the Heat could rely on to generate offense on his own consistently. Even in a much weaker Eastern Conference, they will likely require more internal improvements from some of their younger core players.

“I’m going to go under, and I will probably be wrong on that because they won 37 and they added Norman Powell,” Legler continued. “That alone should be enough, and Kel’el Ware had a very good rookie year. Maybe he just comes out of the gate like a monster.”

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