Timing is everything. Or maybe not.

According to the
Miami Herald newspaper, Spike Lee’s
plans for a short basketball film project for the ABC Network collapsed, when
no player from the Miami Heat was
willing to talk to him.

The project, which was conceived by Spike and the network,
was to have been a sort of short variation of his 1998 film He Got Game with Denzel Washington, and current Heat player Ray Allen.

Allen, as you may recall, played the role of Jesus Shuttlesworth, a promising high school
basketball player and the son a convict father, played by Washington, who is
promised a “get out of jail free” card if he can convince his son to play for
the Governor’s college alma mater.

However, Spike’s timing was way off, since he approached
Allen and other Heat players several hours before the final Game 7. Allen and some other others have
a policy of not doing interviews before a big game, and a few others just simply
refused to talk to Spike.

A spokesperson for the team said that “because
of timing issues, Lee’s project did not materialize,” and that the
players would have been willing to talk to Spike for the short if he had approached
them the day before, which was a practice day.

Spike however did meet with the Heat’s coach and shook
his hand to wish him luck.

However, it’s also quite possible that the players refused
to participate in the short after comments Spike made last year on MTV, if his beloved Knicks did not win the championship the following season: “I
rather the Lakers win it than the Heat. I do not want the Heat to win back to
back. Hell, no.”

I’ve got a feeling that was the real reason why no one
wanted to talk to him, you think?