History of the Miami Heat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in the southern city of Miami, Florida. The team was launched in 1988 and played in the 1988–89 season of the National Basketball Association. The next season they moved from the Western Conference to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.
The Heat are the most successful NBA team that joined after the ABA-NBA merger. After enduring a few seasons of mediocrity, there were several team changes in 1995 and 1996 under head coach Pat Riley, including the recruitment of Isaac Austin and P.J. Brown. They reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 1996–97. They did not reach the conference finals again until 2004–05, under new head coach Stan Van Gundy and with Dwyane Wade as a leading team member.
At this time, they transferred to the Southeast Division. The next year the team won the NBA Finals, defeating the Dallas Mavericks. The head coach position was next taken by Erik Spoelstra. Their next successful season was 2010–11, when they reached the NBA Finals again, losing to the Mavericks. After acquiring LeBron James as a player, they won the Finals in both 2012 and 2013, and won 27 successive games in February–March 2013. In 2013–14 they reached the Finals again but lost to San Antonio Spurs. James left the team in July 2014, and the 2014–15 season was less successful. After signing Jimmy Butler, the Heat returned again to the NBA Finals in 2020, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers. They returned to the Finals yet again in 2023 and lost to the Denver Nuggets after entering the postseason as the eighth seed, becoming the second team in league history to do so after the New York Knicks in 1999.