No, summer league assuredly is not life and death, no one more aware than Miami Heat assistant Dan Bisaccio, who is guiding the team’s summer roster.
But he also appreciates the value of hard work.
It is, in fact, a family touchstone.
“In my family, my dad has a saying, ‘We have everything but talent,’ ” said the affable 34-year-old who next will become coach of the Heat’s G League affiliate. “I think that’s just something we think about on a regular basis, is that when you don’t have that, you’ve got to bring something else. And a lot of that is just energy, and you want to run around and you want to breathe life into these guys.”
Breathe life he has, with the Heat’s 4-0 record in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League putting the team into Sunday’s semifinals, for a chance at a berth in Monday’s nationally televised championship game.
For Bisaccio, this is about more than a summer story.
It is a comeback story.
In December 2018, while working in the Heat’s video wing, Bisaccio was taken ill but doctors initially could not determine the cause. Next thing he knew, he was placed in a coma, diagnosed with a hepatic abscess, a rare but potentially life-threatening complication of appendicitis.
That, Bisaccio said, is when Heat family stood as more than a catchphrase.
“We talk about family with the Heat, and a lot of people say, ‘Those are just words,’ ” Bisaccio related this past week between games in Las Vegas. “But that stuff really means something for us. So my parents, they’re watching on TV and all of a sudden they had to put me in a coma.
“(Assistant coach) Chris Quinn is calling my family, right before the game. I think there’s 10 minutes before the game starts, telling them that they’re going to set something up, they’re going to set a flight up and they’re going to get them down here, and they took care of ’em.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra, general manager Andy Elisburg and Heat president Pat Riley also jumped in to assist.
“Coach Spo, Andy Elisburg, coach Riley, all these guys visited me,” Bisaccio said in a hall at the team’s Las Vegas hotel. “They put together flights, hotels for my family. They were in constant communication.
“And obviously the players were just as supportive, and that was something that means so much to me and my family. But it was a pretty crazy situation. But, again, I think that just speaks volumes for this organization and what they’re willing to do for others.”
When Bisaccio was away from the team during his recovery, Spoelstra had his staff and players warming up in shirts that read “10 Day,” as in 10-day contracts offered to players during the course of seasons.
As Spoelstra explained at the time, “His nickname affectionately has been ’10 Day, 10-Day Dan’ for a couple of years, because of when he is on the scout team during our shootarounds, he’s going 1,000 miles an hour. Guys are always joking with him, ‘Hey, you trying to earn a 10-day?’
Soon enough, the vitality was back.
It hasn’t ceased since.
Bisaccio regularly jumped into drill work during the season, continued to energize during these past three weeks of summer league, a time that otherwise can feel like drudgery.
“We also understand that the NBA is a long season,” explained Bisaccio, who has been with the team since September 2014, previously working as a graduate assistant/video coordinator for the women’s basketball team at Marquette University. “So if you come into it and you just want to run around and you’re just getting through the day, it’s going to be miserable. And us as a staff, we just want to help these guys breathe life.
“For me, I love running around. I love talking to these guys. I love competing against them. And I think there’s just a certain element of that that becomes infectious.”
Tournament time
With Friday night’s 109-73 victory over the Toronto Raptors, a game the Heat led by 42 points at one stage, the Heat advanced to a 4 p.m. Eastern semifinal Sunday (ESPN) against the Golden State Warriors.
Kel’el Ware, the center taken at No. 15 out of Indiana in last month’s NBA draft, helped pace the Heat’s rout with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four steals, his fourth double-double in six summer-league appearances. The Heat also got 21 points from forward Cole Swider.
The teams with the four best records through the opening four-game round advance to the Final Four at the Las Vegas NBA Summer League, with the Heat, Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies all going 4-0.
The winners of Sunday’s semifinals meet Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern (ESPN) for the event’s championship, with the Heat previously never advancing to that title game.
“I would say the Miami Heat playing a staff pickup game against somebody else, we’re going to be competitive and we’re going to try to win that. It doesn’t matter what it is,” Bisaccio said of playing for a shiny trophy and little else of substance. “Yeah, of course, we want to make the championship game.”
