The warm system causes the gas molecules in the surroundings to increase speed. The impact of collisions of these molecules spreads the extra energy throughout the surroundings. This thermal motion determines the temperature. But energy has a strange duality. It appears as heat but can also appear as work.
Work is the energy used to move an object against an opposing force.
His dribble is work. The compressing ball as it strikes the floor, the rebounding ball as it returns to Michael Jordan's hand, all of this is work. Energy used to overcome gravity, to deform the shape of the air-filled ball. When we express energy as the sum of heat and work, we are making a very specific claim concerning these two properties. They are related.