MIAMI _ The first of a pair of Miami Heat reunions over the next 10 days at AmericanAirlines Arena comes Saturday night, when Josh Richardson makes his first appearance as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers. Then, next weekend, Hassan Whiteside arrives for the first time with the Portland Trail Blazers.
For Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr., Richardson's return will be particularly poignant. It was Richardson, Jones said, who formally initiated him into Heat culture.
"He was like an older brother to me," Jones said ahead of the back-to-back set of home games opening with Friday night's visit by the Indiana Pacers. "I'll tell this story until I die: The first words he probably said to me were a couple of curse words, because it was in a game, I just had signed on a two-way (contract) here, I just came from an organization where you would play laid back."
That was with the Phoenix Suns. And Jones said Richardson made it clear he wasn't in Phoenix anymore.
"It was a loose ball that we could have had and I didn't go get it," Jones related, "and there were a few words that I can't say right now. But J-Rich, he let me have it then.
"And ever since that moment, I knew that J-Rich wanted to be a great player and he wanted his teammates to be great, too. It's just a relationship I built, like a brotherhood."
Saturday will be the third of the Heat's four matchups against the 76ers, but the first of the two at AmericanAirlines Arena, with the teams also to play Feb. 3 in South Florida.
Jones wasn't available for the first meeting, out with a strained left hip when Richardson scored a game-high 32 as the 76ers beat the Heat 113-86 Nov. 23 at Wells Fargo Center. Jones then converted a critical late 3-pointer in the Heat's 108-104 Dec. 16 victory in Philadelphia, when Richardson scored 17 on 6-of-17 shooting.
"So he's got to worry about me now," Jones said with a smile.
Just as there are likely to be plenty of pregame smiles and more Saturday with the Heat 2015 second-round pick out of Tennessee.
"I'm just real close to him," Jones said.
