Miami Heat NBA

MIAMI HEAT NBA

The city of Miami, more famous for its sexy beaches and bootylicious babes also has a sporting legacy to boast of. Miami has a keen inclination for sports, especially basketball and the city is home to and the base center of a reputed NBA or National Basketball Association professional basketball team – the Miami Heat.

A quick glance at the Miami Heat facts and figures

• It belongs to the South East Division.
• Its conference is Eastern Conference.
• It plays in the American Airlines Arena.
• The team was founded in 1987.
• The team colors are white, red, orange and black.
• Pat Riley, who also happened to be the coach at one point of time, is currently the General Manager.
• The current head coach of the team is Erik Spoelstra.
• At present Micky Arison owns the team and Pat Riley also enjoys the designation of Team President.
• Its D League affiliate partner is Albuquerque Thunderbirds.
• So far it has won only 1 NBA Championship – its supreme moment of glory in 2006 – the 2005-2006 edition of the NBA by beating the Dallas Mavericks hollow.
• The success was repeated in the same year by another win – the conference titles.
• It has won a total of 7 division titles in the years 2006, 2005, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997 and in 2007.

Miami Heat’s 2006-2007 season was rather disappointing. Towards the end of 2007 on December 19th, in a game against Atlanta Hawks Alonzo Mourning – Miami Heat’s star player fatally injured his knee by tearing the right patellar tendon and had to be operated upon. For many athletes this surgery has spelt the doom of their careers and cut their careers short. But Alonzo maintained that he was not thinking about retirement just because of a major surgery.

Miami Heat

The Wade – Shaq era was one of the most fruitful periods in the history of Miami Heat. In January 2008 Pat Riley had quashed speculation that Miami Heat was considering trading off Shaquille O’Neal, their 13 time all star.

ESPN Sports broke the news on February 6, Wednesday that Miami Heat was indeed selling off Shaq to the Phoenix Suns thus putting an end to the glorious era of Shaq-Wade. In return they would take in Marcus Banks and Shawn Marion.

This was the most eventful news from the Miami Heat stable right towards the very beginning of 2008. More shocks were to follow.

Miami Heat on 16th April, this year earned the dubious distinction of attaining the worst ever record in the NBA championships by scoring only 15 wins and suffering an agonizing 67 losses. It seems unbelievable that this team won this same championship just 2 years back! But the team members and team heads have vowed to reverse their fortunes and play well once more and take drastic measures to take it back to that supreme level – to that pedestal from which it was dethroned last year.

Many people are projecting that Miami Heat’s off seasons this year might be rather busy. This is because the departure of Shaq O’Neal has left abundant free salary cap room. Now the sole super star left in the team is Dwyane Wade and Miami Heat is hoping to build its future around him.

Thus Miami Heat is effectively trying to rebuild the team that achieved magic in 2006 and Wade is a dogged and committed member of that resurrection process and plans. The team is also relying on him heavily because it was he who had single handedly turned around Miami Heat’s fortunes by drafting the 2003 resurrection plan.

The losses meant that Miami Heat had no chance of contending for any playoff and Pat Riley went off to the NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament Games in the hope of catching a few young talented guns who could be included in the team and who could provide some much needed young vital blood to the tottering team.

March – The Season of Shocks

Another shock news dealt a great blow to the prospects of the team when Wade, the Miami Heat super star guard announced his injury rehab layoff to rest his ailing shoulder and knee and he would be unavailable for the remainder of the season. This blow was dealt on 10th March this year.

According to Wade he was keen to participate in and become fit in time for the Beijing Olympic Games and so this rehabilitation rest would be necessary to rejuvenate his tired body.

The very same day it was also announced that Pat Riley was firing Smush Parker from the squad who was already in his bad books due to off court misconduct and police hassle. In his place Bobby Jones was taken in as a stop gap option for guard on a 10 day contract on 12th March. Bobby would play in the small forward and shooting guard positions.

To add insult to injury, March end witnessed Miami Heat posting in the history of NBA a shameful 3rd lowest score total when it lost to the Toronto Raptors.

It attained another dubious record, that too a new one, for the lowest number of basketed balls – the number was 17. This occurred during a match against the Boston Celtics.

However it salvaged some pride and esteem for itself by demolishing Atlanta Hawks. It was the worst franchise record for that season, tying with another worse season of 1988-89.

Era of Resurrection

Erik became the new coach at a tender age of 37 years and Pat Riley who had stepped down as coach, now operates only as team president with the third highest number of wins under his belt.

In June this year, Miami Heat selected Michael Beasly the power forward, Darnell Jackson the Kansas forward who was later replaced by Mario Chalmers, a very talented Kansas guard who guided his team to victory in the NCAA Championships. To add experience and depth to the roster Jamaal Magloire, Yakhouba Diawara and local hero James Jones were acquired and signed on. Shaun Livingston, point guard was also welcomed to the roster.