Since LeBron James permanently changed NBA free agency in 2010, the Miami Heat have become an established powerhouse in the league. Since 2010, no team has seen more Eastern Conference championships than the Heat, who have been led by head coach Erik Spoelstra since 2008.
The championships and success were not always present in South Beach, as — like most expansion teams — Miami spent most of its early years struggling to find consistency. Now, after 35 years as a franchise, the Heat are no longer the young up-and-comers of the NBA, but rather a dominant and despised organization in a major market.
Miami Heat Team Origins
In 1987, the NBA had just 23 teams. The company had just completed its 40th year as an established professional sports league and was ready to expand its business. Ahead of their 41st season of operation, commissioner David Stern announced that two teams would be added to the playing pool the following year.
In 1988, the Miami Heat were founded along with the Charlotte Hornets. As of 2024, Miami and Charlotte are tied as the sixth newest franchises in the NBA. Following the 1998 expansion, the league would add five more teams over the next 20 years to lead to their current total of 30.
Miami Heat Ownership Timeline
Ted Arison
In 1988, Carnival Cruise Line founder and local billionaire Ted Arison became the team’s inaugural majority owner along with several other businessmen.
Micky Arison
For as long as the Heat have been in existence, the team has belonged to the Arison family. In 1995, Arison’s son, Micky Arison, took over as the owner — a position now referred to as “governor.” Under the second Arison’s reign, Miami rose to league-wide prominence and was later able to recognize their first championship.
Micky Arison also took over as CEO of Carnival Cruise Line in 1979 and held that position until 2013, when he began to take steps toward a soft retirement. He is still the chairman of the company as of 2024.
Micky Arison’s son, Nick Arison, is currently the CEO of the Miami Heat and is expected to soon take over as the next governor of the team with the 74-year-old billionaire expected to soon fully retire.
Miami Heat General Manager Timeline
An NBA team is only as successful as its general manager, and the Miami Heat have had five solid leaders in their 35 years of existence. In its brief history as an organization, Miami has quickly developed a reputation within the league as one of the best-run franchises.
Lewis Schaffel
In the first seven years of their tenure, Lewis Schaffel ran the front office. The executive had been in the league since 1977 as the general manager of the Jazz, Hawks, and Nets before moving south to Miami. Schaffel was also a part-owner of the team during its first season but in 1995, he relinquished both roles.
During his time in the front office, Schaffel was responsible for bringing in big-name players including Rony Seikaly, Glen Rice, Manute Bol, and Harold Minor. The early days of a new sports franchise are always the most difficult, and Schaffel admirably performed the task in what would be his final job in the NBA.
Dave Wohl
Schaffel’s run had ended with the hiring of Pat Riley, who was anointed head coach of the team with full control over the team’s operations. Along with his arrival came the hiring of Dave Wohl as the official vice president of basketball operations, but the Heat had become Riley’s show. As of the 2024 NBA offseason, Riley is still the president of the team and oversees most of its big-picture operations.
Wohl lasted just one season as general manager before being replaced in 1997.
Randy Pfund
Following the resignation of Dave Wohl, the Heat brought in Randy Pfund to succeed him as general manager. During Pfund’s time with the team, Riley would step down from his head coaching position but remain with the team in his front office role.
It would be under Pfund’s reign that the Heat would celebrate its first franchise championship in 2006. Pfund held office until 2008 when Riley officially took over as the effective general manager.
Pat Riley / Andy Elisburg
For the following five seasons, Riley had full control of the team and its front office. The legendary head coach would let go of his general managing duties in 2013 at the age of 68 and the team subsequently hired longtime employee Andy Elisburg to take over, who has been with the team since its inaugural season.
Elisburg is the incumbent general manager of the Miami Heat, having run the team for ten successful seasons.
Miami Heat Head Coaching History
For as good as they have been with general managers and front office leaders, the Miami Heat have had arguably an even better timeline of head coaches.
In a league that has become nearly impossible to retain a tenured head coach, Miami has had just six different men in that position across 35 years. Led by Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra, the majority of head coaches who have been tasked with working for the Heat have succeeded in being recognized as one of the top coaches in the NBA.
Ron Rothstein
When the team was assembled, Ron Rothstein was announced as its inaugural head coach. Rothstein unsurprisingly did not have a successful record as the leader of an expansion team and lasted just three years with the club. After his stint with the Heat, Rothstein would remain as a coach in the NBA until his retirement in 2014. He has since signed with Bally Sports Sun and has returned to Miami as a studio analyst for each Heat game broadcast.
Kevin Loughery
After Rothstein got the club moving, the team hired television analyst and former coach Kevin Loughery to take over. In the next three seasons, Loughery elevated the play of the Heat and became the first coach to guide them to a playoff appearance. However, towards the end of his contract, Loughery was fired by general manager Lewis Schaffel and returned to television.
Alvin Gentry
The third hire would be Alvin Gentry, who filled in as head coach following Loughery’s departure in 1994. Gentry had been an assistant under Loughery for the duration of his tenure before being promoted. After just 36 games at the helm, Miami moved on from the interim coach to make room for one of their biggest hires in franchise history.
Gentry would get hired by the Detroit Pistons two years later and would remain in the league as a head coach until 2022.
Pat Riley
In 1995, the Heat made their most notable move as an organization by bringing in Pat Riley, who had just concluded an unsuccessful run with the Knicks. Previously, he had become one of the hottest coaches in the league as the leader of the ‘Showtime’ Lakers from 1979 to 1990. Under Riley’s guidance, Miami would see its biggest rise to league-wide prominence.
After the 2002-2003 season, Miami finished with a bottom-10 record in the league and Riley resigned as coach to focus on his back-end role with the team. In one of his first moves as full-time president, he would select Dwyane Wade fifth overall in the 2003 NBA Draft.
Stan Van Gundy
After his worst season with the team in 2002-2003, Riley relinquished his coaching role to focus on his front-office occupation full-time. The team then called on Stan Van Gundy to take over, who began his era alongside prized rookie Dwyane Wade. In just their second year together, Van Gundy and Wade led the Heat to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance.
Van Gundy’s time in Miami led him to quickly become a prominent coach in the NBA. Over the next 15 years, Van Gundy would serve as head coach of the Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, and New Orleans Pelicans before becoming an analyst for TNT. He would make the NBA Finals in 2009 with Orlando.
Pat Riley (2)
After just two years with the team, Van Gundy resigned midway through the 2005-2006 season, and Riley re-claimed his old position. Rumors began to arise claiming Riley forced Van Gundy out of office but no official word would be confirmed.
In Riley’s second stint, the Heat would reach their first championship in the 2006 NBA Finals, beating the Dallas Mavericks in six games.
Erik Spoelstra
Riley would coach until 2007-2008 when he would retire from coaching again and immediately name his successor, Erik Spoelstra. Since taking the reigns in 2008, Spoelstra has successfully kept the success of Miami afloat and as of 2024, is the second-longest tenured head coach in the NBA behind Gregg Popovich. At the time of his hiring, he was just 37.
In 2024, Spoelstra is recognized by most as the best active coach in the NBA by a wide margin and one of the top coaches in league history. In January 2024, he signed an eight-year, $120 million extension, the largest contract for a coach in NBA history.
Miami Heat Championship History
In just 35 years, the Miami Heat have won three NBA championships through seven Finals appearances.
In 2006, the team won their first Larry O’Brien trophy on the back of third-year budding superstar Dwyane Wade and the recently-acquired Shaquille O’Neal. The team bested the Dallas Mavericks in six games and Wade was named Finals MVP.
With middling success over the next four years, Miami hit the jackpot in 2010 by not only retaining Wade in free agency but also adding two unanimous top-20 players in the league LeBron James and Chris Bosh. The ‘Big 3’ would stick together for four years, reaching the Finals in each season together and winning back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013. In both seasons, James was named Finals MVP.
Since their 2013 championship season, Miami has seen two more Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023 but was unable to bring back another trophy in either year.
Miami Heat Star Players
Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade is the player people think of when the Miami Heat are brought up. Wade is undeniably the franchise’s most important player and was the driving force behind their first championship team in 2006. Nicknamed ‘Flash,’ the dynamic guard was also a key part of the acquisition of the ‘Big 3’ in 2010 due to his friendship with both LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
Wade is one of the team’s longest-tenured players, sticking with Miami from his draft day in 2003 until 2016 when he could not come to terms with an extension with Pat Riley. However, less than two years later, the two Heat legends patched their relationship as the team brought back their former star with a midseason trade.
By the time of his retirement in 2019, Wade had become the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, points, assists, and steals, along with several other niche categories.
LeBron James
‘The Decision’ was not a popular move in 2010, but it changed the entire landscape of the NBA and Miami in particular. Dwyane Wade is the greatest player in Miami Heat history, but LeBron James is undeniably the most talented player to ever put on the team uniform. While some nostalgic fans still claim Michael Jordan as the best player in NBA history, most have come to the consensus that James has taken that honor.
James only played for the Heat for four seasons but in that time, he reached the NBA Finals every year, winning two of them. His time in Miami will always be the years he first became an NBA champion and will likely be the only two seasons he was able to win the titles back-to-back.
From 2010-2014, the Heat was widely recognized as the best team in the NBA that every other club hated and aimed to beat. As of 2024, that era is still the best period of Heat basketball and it will be difficult to top.
Alonzo Mourning
One of the first moves Pat Riley made as the president of Miami was to acquire Alonzo Mourning shortly after being brought on board. The move quickly paid off as Mourning, along with Tim Hardaway, led the Heat to six straight playoff appearances after years of barely surviving as a bottom-feeder.
In his time in Miami, Mourning was unquestionably one of the top centers in the league. The athletic big man would also twice lead the league in blocks. In 2009, Mourning became the first player to have his jersey retired by the team.
Shaquille O’Neal
Despite playing less than four full seasons in Miami, Shaquille O’Neal is one of the six former players to have his jersey retired by the team. The honor was bestowed amongst the Big Diesel in 2016. When questioned on the decision, Pat Riley repeatedly stated that the acquisition of a big star such as O’Neal put the team on the map in 2004 and made the ‘Big 3’ move six years later a possibility.
With O’Neal on the team, the Heat were able to win their first championship in franchise history. Dwyane Wade was the driving force of that team, but O’Neal’s contributions were just as pivotal as he averaged 18.4 points and 9.8 rebounds in the 2006 playoffs.
Jimmy Butler
At any point in his career, Jimmy Butler has rarely been brought up as one of the best players in the NBA. Yet in 2020 and 2023, he nearly single-handedly carried Miami to the NBA Finals in two of the most improbable playoff runs in NBA history. In 2023, Butler and the Heat became just the second 8-seed to make the NBA Finals and the first team to do so after coming out of the play-in tournament.
Perfectly nicknamed ‘Playoff Jimmy,’ Butler has a knack for turning up his production in the postseason. Since signing with the team in 2019, Butler has made the playoffs in each year with Miami and has gone to the Eastern Conference Finals in three of the four seasons.
Ray Allen
From a technical standpoint, Ray Allen is not considered one of the best players in Miami Heat history. In fact, he is far from even cracking the top 100. But despite playing just two years for the team at the end of his career and never averaging more than 10.6 points per game, the sharpshooter will always be linked to South Beach as the owner of one of the most iconic moments in NBA history.
Late in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, the Heat were on the verge of losing an elimination game at home with under 30 seconds remaining. That would be until LeBron James cut the lead to two and an ensuing missed free throw from Kawhi Leonard left the door open for a final Hail Mary attempt. In that possession, James would misfire on the game-tying three-point attempt but the ball would find its way to a backpedaling Allen in the corner who would nail one of the toughest and biggest shots of all time.
Allen’s huge three to send Game 6 into overtime would lead to the Heat winning the series and the championship in Game 7. For as long as basketball remains in existence, the corner three from Allen in that game will always be remembered as one of the most clutch plays in the sport’s history.
Rony Seikaly
Rony Seikaly will always be the forgotten star in Miami Heat history but he will forever have a spot in the team’s lineage. In 1988, Seikaly became the first-ever draft pick of the team, selected ninth overall in the NBA Draft. Over the next six years, Seikaly would become the team’s first star player.
Though he would never be named as an All-Star, Seikaly was an important piece early in the history of the team as they struggled to obtain relevance in the league. In 1990, he would be named as the Most Improved Player after averaging a double-double in his second season. Seikaly would average a double-double for the last five years of his time in Miami but was traded to Golden State shortly before the acquisition of Alonzo Mourning.
Seikaly is not one of the most dominant centers of all time but given the situation he was put in as the prized rookie of an expansion team, he gave Miami hope off the bat during a time when that was all fans needed.
Miami Heat All-Time Stat Leaders
The Miami Heat have had several generational players pass through their organization. View the franchise all-time stat leaders for each major category below:
Points
| Player | Total | Years Active | |
| 1 | Dwyane Wade | 21,556 | 2003-2016, 2018-2019 |
| 2 | Alonzo Mourning | 9,459 | 1995-2002, 2005-2008 |
| 3 | Glen Rice | 9,248 | 1989-1995 |
| 4 | LeBron James | 7,919 | 2010-2014 |
| 5 | Bam Adebayo | 7,513 | 2017-Present |
Rebounds
| Player | Total | Years Active | |
| 1 | Udonis Haslem | 5,791 | 2003-2023 |
| 2 | Alonzo Mourning | 4,807 | 1995-2002, 2005-2008 |
| 3 | Rony Seikaly | 4,544 | 1988-1994 |
| 4 | Dwyane Wade | 4,482 | 2003-2016, 2018-2019 |
| 5 | Bam Adebayo | 4,275 | 2017-Present |
Assists
| Player | Total | Years Active | |
| 1 | Dwyane Wade | 5,310 | 2003-2016, 2018-2019 |
| 2 | Tim Hardaway | 2,867 | 1995-2001 |
| 3 | Goran Dragic | 2,034 | 2015-2021 |
| 4 | Mario Chalmers | 2,004 | 2008-2016 |
| 5 | LeBron James | 1,980 | 2010-2014 |
Three-Pointers Made
| Player | Total | Years Active | |
| 1 | Duncan Robinson | 1,012 | 2018-Present |
| 2 | Tim Hardaway | 806 | 1995-2001 |
| 3 | Tyler Herro | 733 | 2019-Present |
| 4 | Eddie Jones | 712 | 2000-2005, 2007 |
| 5 | Glen Rice | 708 | 1989-1995 |
Blocks
| Player | Total | Years Active | |
| 1 | Alonzo Mourning | 1,625 | 1995-2002, 2005-2008 |
| 2 | Dwyane Wade | 812 | 2003-2016, 2018-2019 |
| 3 | Hassan Whiteside | 783 | 2014-2019 |
| 4 | Rony Seikaly | 610 | 1988-1994 |
| 5 | Joel Anthony | 456 | 2007-2014 |
Steals
| Player | Total | Years Active | |
| 1 | Dwyane Wade | 1,492 | 2003-2016, 2018-2019 |
| 2 | Mario Chalmers | 791 | 2008-2016 |
| 3 | Grant Long | 666 | 1988-1995 |
| 4 | Glen Rice | 572 | 1989-1995 |
| 5 | Kevin Edwards | 560 | 1988-1993 |
Miami Heat Hall of Famers
Of the short list of elite players in Miami Heat history, seven have been nominated into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In chronological order of their induction, that list includes Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O’Neal, Ray Allen, Chris Bosh, Tim Hardaway, and Dwyane Wade.
Of the players in franchise history to receive the honor, Payton and O’Neal have spent significant portions of their career with the team but will likely be remembered for their time with other organizations. Both players were a part of the 2006 NBA Championship unit but had already established their Hall of Fame-worthy careers to that point.
Payton would be the first former Heat player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013, while Wade is the most recent nominee in 2023. The team will all but certainly add another member to their exclusive list once LeBron James becomes eligible to receive the honor.
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