Riley demands character, not characters. That means it's time f...

Heat President Pat Riley once read David McCullough's book, Truman , and was impressed by its style and depth.

[CanesHeatFins]

So just because Beasley is a little happy go lucky, he has no character. He's as serious as the "golden child(Wade)" and the "sacred cow(Udonis)" during game time, so what's the problem? Also his work ethic has never been an issue in college nor with the Heat, so tell me again what we are talking about here? The Heat seem to be attempting to re-write the "how to screw up a can't miss talent" book. All these head games and scapegoating on a 20yo kid, shows low character for many of those in the Heat organization in my opinion. Sounds like he is being punished, ridiculed, and attacked by his own organization not for being a character, but for simply having a DIFFERENT character than that of the "Heat Culture". Beasley's behavior is similar to that of Shaq, who has four rings by the way. Scottie Pippen had no problem sidekickin it with Jordan, remeber Scottie's character was virtually thrown out the window the second he refused to enter the final seconds of a playoff game(Scottie only has 6 rings). During the Laker championship years it was Kobe not Shaq that was seen as the one with these so called "character issues" also known as having a different character than that team's star player...cough...Wade and Beasley....can't stop coughing.....Kobe has three rings. Zo is almost a living definition the word character, but you don't need to be just like him to win a basketball championship.

On a serious note, as long as Beasley continues to take games serious and continues to be the hard worker in practice like his coaches admit that he does, there really needs to be zero issues here. Some guys need to put on an certain act to be who they need to be when the lights come on. Zo needed to be the gladiator every second of every day, Jordan thing was to compete and gamble on your ordinary everyday situations, Floyd Mayweather and Deon Sanders needed to be the overconfident, cocky, flamboyant guy throughout the day, Beasley likes to joke around to mellow himself out to become B-easy.

[im smarter then u]

lol at canesheatfins

dude if u want a $1, ill send one so u can go buy a clue

as soon as i read this article i thought, ohh no here comes th beasley appologist .... and i was right

lolololl

[Miki]

So it's not possible to have personality OFF THE COURT and be a good basketball player on the court? Really? Beasley is all business when he's out there on the court, why his easy-going personality has to be constantly brought up is beyond me. Character has nothing to do with this game. If you can play, you can play, if not, it's probably because you aren't skilled enough like other people thought. Not because you had less character than the next player.

[Moldy]

Character is good. And important. What Riley seems to forget is that he is losing what it takes to reach these young players as he gets older. That rah rah stuff is lost on a lot of deez yearlings. And also he doesn't realize that some people learn and grow differently.

IMO Riley is just trying to make Beez be more humble and I think it is a great idea b/c if he can get some humility he will view himself a little differently and possibly realize that he DOES have to improve at a lot of things if he wants to really make a difference. Im not a huge Riley fan but I think he is right in trying to rein in Beasley a bit. It's OK to clown every now and then but a steady diet of it is too cavalier. It looks like we don't have the right player on the roster to reel him in a bit.

I also think Mourning may have observed this ego driven foolishness and just said eff-it and cashed his chips instead of taking the youngster under his considerable wing for a season.

[Moldy]

Character is good. And important. What Riley seems to forget is that he is losing what it takes to reach these young players as he gets older. That rah rah stuff is lost on a lot of deez yearlings. And also he doesn't realize that some people learn and grow differently.

IMO Riley is just trying to make Beez be more humble and I think it is a great idea b/c if he can get some humility he will view himself a little differently and possibly realize that he DOES have to improve at a lot of things if he wants to really make a difference. Im not a huge Riley fan but I think he is right in trying to rein in Beasley a bit. It's OK to clown every now and then but a steady diet of it is too cavalier. It looks like we don't have the right player on the roster to reel him in a bit.

I also think Mourning may have observed this ego driven foolishness and just said eff-it and cashed his chips instead of taking the youngster under his considerable wing for a season.

[Mr Bates]

Beasley is a future phenom but he must keep working hard so the heat are doing great in humbling him. Scoring isn't everything in NBA.
It's true he needs to get meaner and getting his game face on a bit more.
He'll be all right but I agree that not giving starting spot to him is gonna make him a more complete player in the future and reach his full potential.
Great job Heat, Beasley will be a definite difference maker.

[SJJ]

Hey Dave Hyde, when are you going to reach for excellence? Who cares what kind of mouthpiece Beasley wears? He's 19 years old and he can score right now. That should make things easier for everyone. Beasley has never had to play man to man D before. He'll learn. Oh, and by the way he had his Batman mouthpiece in the other night vs Boston and played great.

[Ian]

This column is ridiculous. First off, since when is Antwan Jamison anything but a very good NBA player. Talk bout character, this guy was willing to be the 6th man in Dallas, even when he is an all-star caliber player. And Beasely is a future 25 pt. 9 rb. guy. You want to talk about effort, maybe it would be more prudent to discuss our current center (O'Neal), who Beasely can out rebound in his sleep. Beasely is a completely unique offensive talent, who would have won rookie of the year if he got drafted by a crappy team. I never hear the coaches questioning how hard he practices or play. Also, he is going to be a better defender than people think. He is alrteady a decent on the ball defender, he just gets lost in the Heat's team defense. They play a confusing defense with a lot of gambling and rotating, and he just hasn't fully grasped it yet.

[juanp]

Character? Didn't Riley quit 7 games into a season because he thought his team [the one he put together] didn't have a chance? Character? Didn't he get Rid SVG [who was very loyal to Riley] as soon as he could? Riley and CHARACTER don't belong together. The Winner who QUIT.

[funkmaster G]

JuanP - I could not have said it better. Pat Riley is to "character" as Charles Barkley is to Jenny Craig. We've seen plenty of Pat's humorless, intense teams choke and crumble in the post-season. Lightheartedness is not equal to laziness.

[Anonymous]

Beasley is another YOU-KNOW-WHAT. Get rid of him! Eliminate the thugary from the NBA and maybe it will be a respectable sport again.

[Wow]

I really hate Eric Spoelstra... Play the FUCKING kid. He's 20years old!!! He doesn't act like a child on the court so what the hell does it matter? Different people have different personalities--not everyone is serious all the time... Different people have different ways of motivating themselves ... I think Spoelstra is a high school coach at best-- his subbing sucks-- can't motivate players individually-- terrible use or non-use of timeouts-- and just allows the give the ball to wade and get out of the way approach. Please fire this guy after the season.

[huh]

hydes columns are always overly judgmental and never make much sense. leave the commentary to scholnick. at least he makes sense.
your sayin that beasley isnt alowed to be happy. Riley once trade most of his core players for shaq. the most happy go lucky guy in the world. his entire championship team in 05 was a bunch of jokesters. beasley obviously works hard otherwise he wouldnt be in the position hes in. you can say this or that bout talent but you dont develop that kind of talent without working on it. i just dont get wut the problem is with having a happy go lucky type of player. basketball is supposed to be fun.

[westernfin]

I'm thinking that Beasley is playing as well as he is right now because of the excellent coaching he's getting , not because he's such a marvelous talent and would be great no matter what!

The difference between good and greatness IS in the details!

[john]

Why are you guys starting this contreversy? Riley has not said anything about beasley's character issues. The kid is 19 and turning 20. What's the big deal. He hasn't been arrested or anything like that. It's what he does on the court that's important isn't it. It's sport writers like you that make the game soft writing about dumb things like this.

[Heyzeus Chryst]

Comparing Jamison to Coleman is laughable. Jamison has tons a character. His problem is he is too nice.

Hyde you don't know crap about basketball if you think Jamison is in Beasley or Coleman's league mentally

[Andy D]

Coleman was a good player. I can think of MANY more #1 picks who didnt have a career like him.

[DW3 County]

This is another example of a waste of time article. This article is the concrete proof of why news paper companies are closing down. Hiring elementary sports beat writers and clueless editor will ultimately lead to this paper shutting down.

Such a sorry article.

[Defender]

The Deceived

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0029/0029...

[Simon Says]

They need to leave Beasley alone. I didn't hear people complaining about Shaq being childish when he was breakdancing for the cameras. Or when he was making fun of John Stockton's short-shorts by nut huggers in the the locker room. It's strange. Shaq wasn't even a rookie when he was doing these things. Even to this very day he continues to act this way But the media seems to love him him for it. What's up wit dat?