Florida news: Miami Heat history profile part one - 1988 - 2006
The Miami Heat are one of the most decorated NBA franchises of all time, being one of just eight teams with three or more championships.
Miami have also boasted some of the biggest names in NBA history, with names like Lebron James, Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade all being notable members of the Heat organisation.
The Heat have become one of the most famous and recognisable franchises in the entire NBA, all whilst being a newer team.
Here, Florida News Blitz writer Oliver Carter takes a look at their storied history.
Origins for the Heat
In 1987 Miami was chosen to be one of four incoming expansion teams and just a year after that in 1988, the Miami Heat joined the NBA alongside the Charlotte Hornets.
The 1988 NBA expansion draft allowed each existing team to protect eight players, the hornets and Heat then took turns picking 12-man rosters from the pool of unprotected players.
The Heat also had the ninth overall pick in the 1988 draft and picked Syracuse centre Rony Seikaly to be their first ever rookie - in the second round of the draft the Heat selected power forward Grant Long.
In their first season in the league, Miami ended up with the worst record in the NBA finishing 15-67 across the 82 game season.
The next year was more of the same with the Heat struggling to find its footing in the league.
The 1989-90 season was headlined by a massive step-up from Rony Seikaly jumping from 10.9 points per game to 16.6, winning the Lebanese center the Most Improved Player award.
Steps forwards
After another underwhelming season in 90-91 the 1991-1992 season saw a massive step up in Miami, whilst still having a negative record of 38-44 the Heat made their first ever playoff appearance.
The playoffs were not kind, however, as they faced Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
The Bulls swept the Heat 3-0 ending the first playoff appearance as quickly as possible.
The next season the Heat missed the playoffs once again.
However the 1993-94 season marked another big step forward as Miami managed its first ever positive record, making the playoffs while finishing 42-40.
The second playoff appearance was much more hard fought, however the Heat still came up short in the first round, losing 3-2 to Kevin Willis and the Atlanta Hawks.
The 1994-95 season marked a sort of end of an era, as Rony Seikaly departed Miami for the other side of Florida joining the Orlando Magic.
The loss of Miami’s main man saw a massive step back as the Heat regressed to 32-50, missing the playoffs once again leading to the firing of coach Kevin Loughery.
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A new beginning
Following the firing of Loughery, the Miami Heat hired former New York Knicks legend and Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley.
The 1995-96 season was a massive turning point as the Heat signed All Star center Alonzo Mourning and in a mid season trade landed All Star guard Tim Hardaway.
With Pat Riley at the helm, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway quickly became a formidable duo and led Miami back into the playoffs.
The playoffs saw the Heat once again face off against Michael Jordan and the Bulls, with the Bulls handily beating Miami 3-0 once again - however this sparked the start of a small rivalry between the teams.
Across the 1996-97 season the Heat gathered the reputation of being one of the toughest teams in the NBA as they fought to an incredible 61-21 record.
This season ended with Tim Hardaway coming fourth in MVP voting as well as being named to the All-NBA first team.
The 1997 playoffs also marked the first series wins for the Heat as they beat the Magic 3-2 as well as the New York Knicks 4-3 - the series between the Knicks was so hard fought that a rivalry still stands to this day between the teams.
However Miami’s first playoff run came to an end at the hands of the Bulls once again, with Michael Jordan leading the scoring of every game in the 4-1 series.
After yet another defeat at the hands of the Bulls, the Heat had a serious chip on their shoulder and began crafting an identity around their hard nose defence.
This new style earned Alonzo Mourning his first Defensive Player of the Year award as well as All-NBA first team honours and MVP runner-up.
Mourning averaged 20.1 points, 11 rebounds and a staggering 3.9 blocks per game.
Despite the historic season from Mourning, the Heat had a slight step back to 55-27 as well as yet another first-round playoff exit, a hard-fought 3-2 win over the New York Knicks.
The 98-99 season was an NBA lockout following a dispute between the NBA and the NBA Players Association meaning the season was only 50 games long.
The shortened season ended with Alonzo Mourning winning another Defensive Player of the Year award as the Heat finished with a 33-17 record over the 50 games.
The playoffs were even more of the same after yet another hard fought 3-2 loss to the Knicks.
1999-2000 and 2000-01 ended with 52-30 and 50-32 records respectively, the 2000 playoffs saw the Heat eliminated in the second round by the Knicks for the third straight year, yet another 4-3 loss for the Heat.
The next year was no better being swept 3-0 in the first round by the Charlotte Hornets.
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End of one era starts another
Midway through the 01-02 season Tim Hardaway was traded off the team as the Heat missed the playoffs and Alonzo Mourning missed the 02-03 season due to health concerns and the team saw a massive dip.
At the end of the 2003 NBA season, coach Pat Riley also stepped down to become the Team President and Basketball operations executive.
After dropping all the way down to 25-57 the Heat landed the fifth pick in the 2003 NBA draft, widely considered to be one of the best NBA drafts of all time and by far the most important draft in Miami Heat history.
A draft class boasting Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, three of those names would be crowned NBA champions in Miami, however 2003 was all about Dwyane Wade.
The high-flying 6ft 4ins guard out of Marquette was nicknamed ‘Flash’ thanks to his acceleration and speed quickly became a fan favourite in Miami.
However Wade wasn’t the only legend to join the team in 2003, as the Heat signed former Florida Gator Udonis Haslem to the roster.
Although Haslem would never make a single All Star appearance or even average more than 12 points in a single season, Haslem spent the next 19 years as a member of the Heat.
Wade’s rookie season was amazing, averaging 16.3 points 4 rebounds and 4.5 assists while helping the Heat back into the playoffs alongside Lamar Odom and Eddie Jones.
Miami won their first round matchup against the New Orleans Hornets 4-3 before getting eliminated 4-2 by the infamous 2004 Indiana Pacers.
After a massive falling out with the legendary Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal requested a trade off of the Lakers. Shaq ended up in Miami, moving from Kobe to Wade.
The MVP of the league in 2000 as well as a 3x champion and 3x Finals MVP Shaq pushed the Heat way ahead of schedule.
Shaq finished as the MVP runner up as the Heat went 59-23.
A deep playoff run saw the Heat sweep both the New Jersey Nets and the Washington Wizards 4-0 before falling to the Detroit Pistons 4-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals.
With Dwyane Wade entering his third season and Shaq coming off the back of a near MVP the Heat faced high expectations, after a poor start of 11-10 coach Stan Van Gundy resigned and Pat Riley stepped back in to take his place.
Under Riley the Heat went 41-20, ending the year 52-30, following this amazing turn around the Heat faced off against the Bulls and for the first time ever the Heat managed to defeat the Bulls winning the series 4-2.
Their second round matchup was against the Nets, who they swept the previous year, and once again the Heat came out on top, winning the series 4-1.
After reaching yet another conference finals, there was more pressure than ever to finally make a run all the way to the NBA finals, a task they managed to complete beating the Detroit Pistons 4-2, getting revenge on the team that had defeated them the year prior.
The Miami Heat now faced the Dallas Mavericks and Superstar Dirk Nowitzki.
Tough start
The series got off to a tough start losing both games 80-90 and 85-99, Dwyane Wade shined in the losses scoring 28 points in game one and 23 in game two.
However, when the series returned to Miami something changed in Dwyane Wade, as he exploded in game 3 scoring 42 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in a close 96-98 victory for the Heat.
Something had awakened in the 24 year old guard as he took over the series, scoring 36 points in game 4 to win 74-98 in a staggering blowout to tie the series at 2-2.
In game 5 Dwyane Wade did not slow down showing off his incredible scoring prowess with 43 points in a hard-fought game that went to overtime.
Wade played 50 minutes in the game, doing everything he could to will Miami to victory.
Miami eventually came out on top in game 5, winning 100-101 and taking a 3-2 series lead.
For the possible championship-clinching game, the teams travelled back to Dallas, but once again nothing could slow young Dwyane Wade down, as he scored 36 points to push Miami over the line in a 95-92 win, crowning the Miami Heat as the 2006 NBA Champions.
Dwyane Wade was awarded with the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award for his staggering 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals.
This series truly kicked off Wade’s legacy in Miami whilst also earning Shaquille O’Neal his fourth NBA Championship and placed the Heat on top of the basketball world.
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