Quick 3 p.m. update on the curious, unfortunate turn of events with Gerald Green today:
The Heat guard is hospitalized at this hour after police were called to his condominium following a commotion earlier today. The city of Miami police department told The Herald that Green was not arrested.
Police call logs show that police were summoned to the Marquis Residences Condominium, at 1100 Biscayne Blvd., at 10:46 am today because of a "male down."
According to a Herald source, Miami Fire and Rescue requested assistance because of a "combative patient" at that address.
Police assisted but did not write a report and nobody was arrested at the condominium.
Multiple witnesses at the condo told TMZ that Green "was acting strange in the lobby of the condo ... screaming at the top of his lungs."
TMZ said it was by told by several people "that there was a huge commotion and it took several people -- including emergency personnel -- to restrain Green and get him on a stretcher and into an ambulance."
Mario Chalmers was at the scene, tried to help and accompanied Green in the ambulance, according to TMZ. The Herald has confirmed that Chalmers was with Green at the hospital today.
"This morning we were informed that Gerald Green was admitted into the hospital," the Heat said in a statement. "Right now our concerns are with Gerald and we have no further comment at this time.”
Green, 29, was inactive for Tuesday's game against the Hawks with an undisclosed illness.
Green has never been suspended by the NBA for an off-court incident, and there is nothing documented in his past to suggest anything related to mental illness.
The Heat did not practice Wednesday and are flying this afternoon to play in Minnesota Thursday night.
Our Chuck Rabin and Ethan Skolnick contributed to this.
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WEDNESDAY BUZZ COLUMN
Baseball free agency starts in the next week, and the Marlins simply must reverse a disturbing pattern.
While they’ve made some good trades, they’re on a disconcerting cold streak with offseason signings; most of their top free agent additions in the past several years weren't longterm (and in most cases, even short-term) solutions --- Heath Bell, Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Garrett Jones, Michael Morse, John Buck, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Rafael Furcal. All except Reyes and Buehrle were busts.
Their best signing, Casey McGehee, faded after four good months and was traded last winter, then returned this summer and hit .182 here after the Giants released him.
Michael Hill, the Marlins’ president/baseball operations, said none of this will make the Marlins gun-shy about spending in free agency. “When they don’t work out, you take a step back and see why they didn’t work out because we don’t want to repeat a mistake,” Hill said.
Marlins president David Samson said “we have full belief in all of our baseball guys who work for Mike --- and Mike” but “you can’t deny that we’ve made some mistakes. We made the wrong decisions about the people surrounding our core. So we're going to have [some] new players. There’s one team that can deal with mistakes and cover them up. There used to be three or four. Now it’s just one: the Dodgers.”
The offseason mission is clear: “We need pitching,” Samson said. “Love the core we have of position players. You look at the NL East; this is our time. We have three of the top 10 players in baseball [Giancarlo Stanton, Jose Fernandez, Dee Gordon]. Maybe we're wrong. But we feel that way.
“[But] we need to get better pitching. We’ll figure out how to do it. We have to do it in a way where we lose as little money as possible. We are spending time trying to raise revenue. We’re trying to do a [stadium] naming rights deal which we hopefully will have by the beginning of next season, certainly by 2017. We’re trying to do a TV deal that we’ve been working on for years. We’re trying to sell more tickets. Our season tickets are up.”
Samson, who has already publicly ruled out pursuing the most expensive free agent pitchers, said the Marlins have challenged their baseball people “to tell us who on that list of 80 free agent pitchers,… which five guys are going to win 13 games and outperform their contracts.”
They are willing to spend $5 million to $12 million annually for a pitcher and might consider going to $15 million for the right one, but likely no higher. Texas’ Yovani Gallardo would be an interesting option in the high end of that range.
The lineup will remain the same unless Marcell Ozuna is traded; owner Jeffrey Loria has been down on him. Cleveland has interest in Ozuna and has young pitching to offer in return (Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco are among those who reportedly could be in play in trades). The Marlins likely would sign two starting pitchers if they keep Ozuna, one if they deal Ozuna for a pitcher.
“Ozuna has to commit himself to the game,” one veteran National League scout said. “He does so many things wrong. He doesn’t always concentrate defensively. He has to watch his weight, learn the strike zone. I would trade him if I could because I don’t know if he will get it."
Though several teams have inquired, the Marlins prefer not to trade third baseman Martin Prado, a respected team leader who finished the season strong. The Yankees will again pay $3 million of the $11 million he’s owed next season.
Though the Marlins have given thought to pursuing a closer, they’re more inclined to spend their money on starting pitcher, and an outfielder if Ozuna is traded. “AJ Ramos, you look at his numbers, he was a good closer,” Hill said.
CHATTER
### We hear UM football is close to finalizing a deal to play at Appalachian State (Boone, N.C.) next season, with the teams playing a game at Sun Life in a future year. Appalachian State, a member of the Sun Belt Conference, is 7-1, with its only loss to Clemson. The Canes needed to fill an opening, and Appalachian State was one school that could accommodate UM on short notice.
UM’s other 2016 non-conference games: Florida A&M, FAU and at Notre Dame.
### If UM wins its final four games, it would win the Coastal Division if Duke loses at least one among four (at UNC, Pitt, at Virginia, at Wake Forest) and UNC loses to UM and at least one among Duke, at Virginia Tech and at N.C. State.
### For all the talk about the last play Saturday, UM football people privately have complained about a bunch of other things in that game – not only unjustified penalties against UM but the strong belief that Duke committed illegal picks off wheel routes. The ACC has been made aware of UM’s concerns, a UM staffer said.
### Most famous person to reach out to UM’s Corn Elder (via Twitter) to congratulate him for his touchdown Saturday? Singer/actor Tim McGraw, who has won three Grammys. “His daughter went to my high school,” Elder said.
### Running back Jay Ajayi is eligible to return Sunday and expects the Dolphins to activate him for the Bills game. But here's the rule with regard to short-term IR: The Dolphins have until Nov. 11 to place Ajayi on the 53-man roster, according to the team. If he's not activated by then, he must remain on injured reserve all season.
### This wasn’t what Dolphins receiver Greg Jennings envisioned when he signed here: Playing nine snaps in interim coach Dan Campbell’s first game, just four last Thursday. But Jennings, a classy guy, said he won’t ask for his release.
Campbell “came to me and explained Kenny Stills was ascending and nobody had really set themselves apart and they wanted to try Kenny out at Z [receiver position],” Stills said. “They want me to continue to lead by example, practicing the right ways, taking those guys and nurturing them. They have a lot of talent. We want it to continue to manifest and take the league by storm.”
### Just the Dolphins' luck: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said today that Tony Romo remains on track to return Nov. 22 against the Dolphins. Dallas was 2-1 with him, 0-4 so far without him.
### Tuesday's 98-92 loss to Atlanta exposed three suspected Heat shortcomings: three-point shooting, even more so when Gerald Green is out; an inability to keep opposing point guards from penetrating; and a speed deficit in the starting lineup against teams with the kind of quickness that Atlanta has.
With Green missing the game because of illness, Miami shot 5 for 28 on threes. It didn't help that starting forwards Chris Bosh (4 for 14, 9 points) and Luol Deng (2 for 9, 4 points) combined to shoot 6 for 23.
Hassan Whiteside continued his excellent work with 23 points (11 for 12 from the field), 14 rebounds and four blocks. He's shooting 76 percent through four games (29 for 38).
But Mario Chalmers, the subject of trade rumors, shot just 1 for 9, Justise Winslow 2 for 7. Chris Andersen gave the Heat a fourth quarter lift in his first appearance of the season.
Erik Spoelstra said Dwyane Wade (21 points) missed a chunk of the second half because "he felt there was a possible onset of a migraine. Had some blurry vision, was able to go back in there." Wade said the migraine just "came on."
Poor starts remain an issue for the Heat early on this season. "That's something we will figure out," Spoelstra said.
### The Heat knows good things often happen with Tyler Johnson on the court --- one reason why Miami is still open to trading Chalmers.
Consider that Miami outscored teams by 84 with Johnson in the game in preseason (among the five best in the league) and he was plus 29 in 21 minutes in the regular season entering Tuesday. Johnson was minus seven tonight (7 points, 2 steals in 21 minutes).
Johnson often gets comments like this one from Andre Miller last season: “He said, ‘I didn’t know you could get up [jump] like that.’ It’s because I look like a white guy. I’ve gotten that for years. I’m mixed.”
### Twitter: @flasportsbuzz
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