The opening act of the spectacle known as Miami Heat media day featured Coach Erik Spoelstra. He climbed onto a platform illuminated by stage lights and surveyed an armada of 275 reporters, bloggers and photographers and more cameras than a reality show. If Monday resembled a circus, so will next Monday, and the Monday after that, all the way until LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh conclude their superstar melting pot experiment. Inside this maelstrom stands Spoelstra, the 39-year-old, baby-faced third-year coach charged with turning this all-star team into a champion, with team president Pat Riley looking over his shoulder and sports fans across the country openly rooting for the exceedingly talented Heat to fail. 'Let's be real about it,' Spoelstra told reporters at the University of Miami. 'This team hasn't been built for us to be under the radar.' Spoelstra finds himself in an enviable and impossible position, mainly because his team includes three of the NBA's best players. If the Heat wins a title, Spoelstra will be described as the lucky recipient of their gifts. If the team loses, he will shoulder more than his share of the blame. Regardless, the Heat has swung open the doors of scrutiny, its nickname doubling as a description of what the team is feeling. The team's lives changed markedly in July, when James decided to take his talents to South Florida, and the two months that followed felt like eight, Spoelstra said. On a trip to the Philippines, Spoelstra met Manny Pacquiao, and since the pound-for-pound king of boxing loves his hoops, he apologized for wearing Boston Celtics green and promised to switch allegiances. Wade remembered when the Heat used to give tickets away, essentially begging fans to come. Now, the Heat recently fired some of its season-tickets staff for what seems like understandable reasoning -- there are no tickets left to sell. 'It's going to be a huge, huge deal,' Bosh said. 'Each city we go through, it's going to be a show every night.' The so-called Big Three entered through a side door after Spoelstra, and thus grew an odd symphony of sounds. On the other side of a curtain, basketballs bounced and people shouted. The microphones in front of the players squeaked. Cameras clicked. Shoes shuffled. And with apologies to Allen Iverson, yes, they were talking about practice. This may have been the largest news conference in sports history without a moderator. Instead of 'The Decision,' the television circus on which James announced his plan to join Wade and Bosh here, Monday presented 'The Indecision.' No one knew who should start. Eventually, the questions returned, as they always do, to expectations. Anything less than a championship would be considered a disappointment. Yet for all the Big Three's individual talent, Bosh has never advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs, James has never won a title, and Boston and Orlando remain formidable competition in the East. James spent his summer listening to criticism from what seemed like half of the Basketball Hall of Fame. Players like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley chimed in. Spoelstra called criticism within the NBA hypocritical. He said every team would have done the same thing. He noted how fans always implore heroes to take less money, to play for the love of team. His three superstars followed the team concept, Spoelstra said, but instead of the celebration he envisioned, they were cast as villains, greedy for hardware but unwilling to take a team there alone. What the Big Three view as selflessness, many find the opposite, with three selfish superstars bullying an unsuspecting league. James refused to fire back but said, 'All this hero-villain mess, it's bizarre.' Monday afternoon, Spoelstra planned to address his team before the Heat boarded a flight for training camp, held for the first time roughly 650 miles away at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle. The Heat shipped in oversize beds for the players at this basketball boot camp, aimed to minimize distraction with closed practices and looked to draw on military parallels and bonding exercises to increase team unity. 'It's time,' Spoelstra said, 'to get to work.' Spoelstra brimmed with excitement all day. He lauded Wade for arriving at camp in the best shape Spoelstra had seen him. He described James as 'serious' and described his 'courage' in subjecting himself to criticism. Spoelstra even answered the predictable question -- who will take the last-second shot? -- with a smile. The stock answer: Whoever is open. James says the Heat will change the structure of the NBA, forcing a handful of other teams to stock rosters with elite players as well. First, though, the Heat must prove such talent can coexist. The first assist came Monday afternoon, when Wade's microphone went out and James and Bosh, seated on either side of Wade, came to the rescue, handing their microphones over. Whether that marked coincidence or harbinger, the Heat will find out soon enough. 