MIAMI – Sa taas na 5-foot-8, tinitingala ni Floyd Mayweather Jr. ang mga player ng Miami Heat.
Ngunit nitong Linggo, ang mga players ng Miami ang huma-nga kay Mayweather.
Surpresang bumisita si Mayweather sa practice ng Heat at umupo sa courtside kasama sina team president Pat Riley, managing general partner Micky Arison at iba pang opisyal ng team.
Bibihirang may outsider na pinapapasok sa practice ng Heat ngunit sa katayuan ni Mayweather na walang talo sa kanyang 45 na laban para kilalaning best fighter sa buong mundo, sapat na ito para magkaroon siya ng ultra-VIP access.


“We’re trying to defend two titles. He’s been defending for a long time,’’ sabi ni Heat star LeBron James. “He definitely knows where we’re coming from. It’s exciting at the end of the day to have someone, one of the greatest of all-time, to be in the presence. It’s something you can talk about years from now. ... We’re honored and blessed to have him in the building.’’


Umalis si Mayweather nang patapos na ang practice at nagbigay siya ng maiksing speech kung saan pinaalalahanan niya ang two-time defending NBA champions sa pangangailangan ng tiyaga at dedikasyon.
Lagi siyang nasa courtside sa mga laro ng Heat ng ilang taon na.


“From one champion to another, he just talked about him being proud of us, how we handled ourselves,’’ sabi ni Heat guard Dwyane Wade. “He knows as a champion how hard it is to go out there every night and compete, when someone can take you down and take what you work for. He just kept telling us how proud he is of us and that’d he’d be here to support, just as he was for many years.’’


Hindi na iba ang boxing sa Heat dahil ginagamit ito nina James at Wade sa training at conditioning.
“Champs-to-champ respect, that’s universal and pretty awesome,’’ ani Spoelstra. “Our guys are ob-viously in awe of what he’s been able to do for an extremely long period of time, 17 years being on top. That’s almost too remarkable to even fathom.’’


Umalis si Mayweather, kagagaling lamang sa dominanteng panalo kontra kay Canelo Alvarez, na hindi humarap sa mga reporters.
Ang laban ay kumita ng $150 million sa TV sales lamang at si Mayweather ay tumanggap ng record na $41.5 million purse.