Miami Heat

The Miami Heat (or the Miami HEAT as the display name is officially rendered, and referred to as that on their official website) are a professional basketball team based in Miami, Florida, USA. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). more...

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Home arenas

Miami Arena (1988-1999)

American Airlines Arena (1999-present)

History

Rothstein years

In 1987, after some influence from Billy Cunningham, the NBA voted to expand itself by adding four new teams: the Charlotte Hornets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, and Miami Heat. The Heat came into the NBA for the 1988-89 season with an unproductive first year, reflecting a roster full of young players and journeymen. Among the players on the inaugural roster were first round picks Rony Seikaly and Kevin Edwards, fellow rookies Grant Long and Sylvester Gray as well as NBA vets Rory Sparrow, Jon Sundvold, Pat Cummings, Dwayne Washington and Billy Thompson. The team started out the season by losing its first 17 games, an NBA record. The team ultimately finished with a league-worst 15-67 win-loss record under former Detroit Pistons assistant coach, Ron Rothstein.

The Heat picked Glen Rice from the University of Michigan in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft and Sherman Douglas of Syracuse University in the 2nd round and the team also moved from the Western Conference (Midwest Division) to the Eastern Conference (Atlantic Division) for the 1989-90 season. However, the Heat continued having problems in the NBA and never won more than two consecutive games, en route to a 18-64 record.

The 1989-90 season saw Miami awarded with the 3rd pick overall, only to parlay via two trades (first with the Denver Nuggets and later with the Houston Rockets into getting the numbers 9 and 12 picks, with which Miami selected Willie Burton of the University of Minnesota and Alec Kessler of the University of Georgia. Neither of which panned out long-term for various reasons. Burton because while he was a small forward in college, the Heat insisted on playing him at shooting guard, and Kessler due to injury problems as well as not being physical enough to be a quality NBA power forward.

While Rice, Seikaly and Douglas all showed improvement from the previous year, Miami still only went 24-58 and remained in the Atlantic Division basement, with coach Rothstein resigning at the end of the season.

Loughery years

Rothstein resigned before the 1991-92 season and the Heat picked Kevin Loughery, an NBA coach with 29 years of experience both as a coach and a player, to be their new head coach. For the 1991 NBA Draft, the team selected Steve Smith from Michigan State, who provided an agile guard to a more matured Heat team. With the help of rookie Smith, Rony Seikaly, and a more experienced Glen Rice, the Heat finished in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a 38-44 record and made the playoffs for the first time. Playing the league-best Chicago Bulls, the Heat were swept in three games. Steve Smith made the NBA All-Rookie team and Glen Rice finished 10th in the NBA in scoring.

Read more at Wikipedia.org