The 2006 Miami Heat championship series: Setting the stage | Five on the Floor

The 2006 Miami Heat championship series: Setting the stage | Five on the Floor

Welcome to the latest episode of Five on the Floor on the Five Reason Sports Network. Thanks for joining your favorite podcast app on Apple, Apple Podcast, and on Android. Recommend Spotify. Also check out the Five Reasons YouTube channel for all your South Florida sports content, including daily Dolphins reports. Also check out Off the Floor. That’s our Discord server. Two bucks per month. Link right here in the description. Bypass the Apple Upcharge and cancel the 299 at any time. You get access 10 different channels, plus our stage shows. Adele’s been going regularly there. We’re going to be joining him there soon. Also on there, you get the host updates and more. The place with the most heat information and conversation. It’s off the floor. Also, prize picks. Use the code five. It’s baseball season. You can play that. You can play WNBA and more. We’re getting ready for football. We’re three weeks away. Enroll now. Use the code five fib. Put down your five bucks. You get 50 to play right away. And now today’s episode. Luxurious heat nation. Yeah. Mercy go down the gang. Five on the floor. Ride for my dogs. Where’s the thing? You can check the score. Hustle hard. Couple stars wearing bubble fra got it all van y’all seen the block stop one hand and paputs here y’all can hang it up. Welcome to five on the floor a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sander, Alex Toledo, Brady Hawk, and others from the Five Reason Sports Network. Also, make sure to subscribe to Off the Floor for the most heat anywhere. Welcome back to Five on the Floor. Here’s today’s floor plan. I’m Ethan Skolnick. You can follow me at Ethan J. Skolnick and at Five Reason Sports. I got Greg Sander. You can follow him at Greg Sllander. We are setting the scene for some offseason content. 20 years ago, well, not quite 20, but it’s the 20th anniversary season, the Miami Heat became champions. They had not been champions in their history. Uh, founded in 1988 back in the old Miami Arena, which was basically a relic about 3 years after it was built. We appreciate the folks who keep the Miami Arena alive on their Instagram account. Brings back a lot of memories of me parking in the gravel lot next to the building after Heat Knicks games uh and uh and various other disasters. Uh, but that is where the Heat were found in 1988. I was 15 at the time. I hate to say that. Uh, by the time I came back from grad school, and I will acknowledge I was a Knicks fan. Uh, Pat Riley was the coach of the Knicks. Um, I had no anticipation at that time that I would be ultimately covering Pat Riley in Miami. Um and then came down to Miami, took a job uh with the Palm Beach Post and suddenly I was in his uh second season with the Heat. Actually first season I covered a little bit as well uh when he was the head coach. They would practice down at Lasal and there was this dream, right? This was on the Carnival ship that they were going to bring a championship to Miami and they started to set the scene uh with the the Glenn Rice for Alonzo Morning Trade, which Greg Sander cried about at the time. We always bring that back to you. and they put themselves in position to uh you know to build a contender, but the contender never really got over the hump largely because what happened 25 years ago, two days ago as we’re recording this, uh a move that was meant to essentially get them past their emotional, mental, and physical failings that they kept running into against the Knicks. Uh they to change the course of their their their trajectory a little bit. Excuse me. upgrade the roster, get rid of some of the bad feeling. And so they made a trade again 25 years ago uh two days ago, 25 years and two days ago of Jamal Mashurn and PJ Brown. Two two main stays, third and fourth players basically from uh those late 90s teams with Zoe and Tim. They traded those players. They wanted to get Tracy McGrady or Grant Hill. It’s a good thing they didn’t get Grant Hill cuz he was not in his best physical condition at that time. didn’t get either. Pivoted to Eddie Jones, picked up Anthony Mason in a trade along with Eddie Jones and also got Brian Grant. And I I’m proud to say this is the first big big story I ever broke. I had that first that Brian Grant was coming to Miami and that whole trade was happening. And so that’s basically the core of a team that was going to essentially win a championship. That’s what they thought. Uh, they had a lineup of Tim and Zo and Bruce Bowen was still there and Mace and Brian Grant, Eddie Jones. They signed Eddie and Brian to sevenyear $86 million contracts. I can’t remember what I ate yesterday, but I remember the size of those deals. It was a big deal. Uh, but then unfortunately as we were at FAU, uh, I remember sitting with the great Barry Jackson. You have to say the great before his name. I was sitting with the great Barry Jackson. We’re like, where is Zo? And Zo was not there at training camp because he had failed a physical. And that never materialized. They He was out 69 games. He came back. They went eight and five. They got swept in the first round. Uh the late Anthony Mason, God rest his soul, who had had a great season, all-star season, he kind of quit in the playoffs. They got rolled and then they essentially started rebuild, which then blossomed with the drafting of Dwayne Wade in 2003, the trade for Shaquille O’Neal right after that. And that’s kind of where we’re going to start this series. because that led to the championship. And I will acknowledge this Greg as we go forward. At the end of the 2004 2005 season and I also to say this, our Matteo Mayorga in our network has been conducting a series of interviews. We’re going to be running some of those interviews here on five on the floor. We’re going to be doing our own interviews. I know he’s already interviewed Tim Reynolds, Mike Wallace, uh George Sedano is going to join me next week. We’re going to chronicle that 20th the 20th anniversary of the rise to that championship. Some of it will push back to the 21st year obviously, but the 20th year. But I will acknowledge this, Greg, that when they lost in 2005 and Shaquille O’Neal was unhappy because he did not get the ball late in that last game against the Pistons at home. Dwayne was not healthy. Um, he had missed game six. They had gotten rolled in game six up in Detroit. I was there, came back, uh, and Stan kept going to Dwayne late in that game. It was not the same. Uh, and I remember sitting with Shaq at the Delano Hotel and him complaining about Stan for about six hours. I knew things weren’t going to work out, but Pat made a trade, and I will always acknowledge this. I’ve never been so wrong about something, and I’m sure George is going to kill me on this. I hated the trade at the time. I remember where I wrote the column for the Suns Sentinel screaming headline. Basically, Pat’s lost his mind. uh traded Eddie Jones and essentially gave up on that team, but he got some guys who’d had some issues elsewhere uh with various things, you know, in terms of uh the ball, possession time, usage uh and ended up with Jason Williams, Antoine Walker, James Posey, Gary Payton uh as a chief free agent. I’ve never been so wrong. What did you think of the trade as we pivot back to start this series at the time? It’s interesting because I think actually the team that lost to the Pistons in ‘ 05, like they had a legit shot to win it all and if Wade didn’t hurt his ribs, I think they actually would have maybe got it done that year. So, it was controversial in the in the respect that had everyone been okay and Wade been fully healthy, they may have not felt the need to make these changes. But this was a deal that um the prize I think at the time Antoine Walker was a free agent and so they they essentially got a free agent in a sign and trade and also supplemented with Posie and with Jay Will. Um it was a big shift. It’s kind of like what Heat fans have asked to happen with with the team that’s currently there and they’re kind of finally getting to a place where you’re seeing the roster turn over. But it I to me thought that it was a a team that could win the championship immediately. I wanted to see Wade healthy, but when you put the pieces together and I remember hearing uh Dan Leitard mention like I’ve seen teams win championships before with pieces that don’t fit. Ethan, you were kind of right like they had like Antoine Walker um and Udonis Hasslam and like you didn’t know how those two guys were going to be able to play next to each other in the front court. was a different day for basketball. Jay Will was a welcome addition at point guard. Damon Jones had a great season the year before hitting threes, but Jay Will was just a better point guard overall. They got better talent and they looked like they were ready for a run. But I still say to this day, had Wade not hurt his ribs that they would have likely got it done in 0405 as well. That team played better. The 0405 team played better than the 0506 team. Um 59 wins. Yeah, 59 wins and Shaq was better. That’s the biggest thing. Shaq was an MVP candidate. Finished number two to Steve Nash. He probably should have won it. And Dwayne had made the leap. Like they kind of knew what they had after his rookie season and the dunking on Germaine O’Neal and everything else that happened there and the big shot uh in the lane. You know, they gave it to the rookie and he delivered Tony Furantino’s call. They they knew what they had, but but the explosion statistically in the second season as Shaq still commanded an incredible amount of attention. And by the way, I was among those who and I I not great on my part either. That was kind of like they’re giving up both Karan and Lamar to get Shaq who at the time there was the contract dispute. There were talk about how lazy he’d gotten and all that. his numbers had declined significantly even though he had a big presence obviously. So I wasn’t a whole 100% sold on that either. So and and when Pat got when they got Shaq it was sort of indicated this is a two-year plan like we don’t have we don’t have time to put the entire team together. They gave up Brian Grant, you know, had was a starter even though he was diminishing at that time. But but Lamar and Karan when Karan got healthy, they logged heavy minutes for them. And they had to sort of plug these holes. Damon Jones had been, I think, was seven teams to that point. And he was the starting point guard, you know, Sha and, you know, Shrek and Dunkey, the whole thing. And Damon was kind of comic relief, but he made shots, but he he wasn’t really a great dribbler. He was a bad defender. And Eddie Eddie was a hope trafficking thing at that point. Like Eddie was a very talented player, was best as a number three. Kind of got pushed into being a number one for the Heat with a couple of down years because of Zo’s situation. And by then you’re like, well, he’s not really even a number three anymore that you can count on in big situations. And so, but I was partial to him personally. And I think I got that I I don’t get caught up in that stuff anymore, but at the time as a younger reporter, I think I used to do that. So I I was I was like, “Okay, they’re giving up Eddie. He gives them defensive versatility. He gets steals. He’s a shot maker.” But he wasn’t a shot maker when it most mattered for them. And I don’t think Shaq ever totally trusted him from back in the days in LA. And that had become an issue when they came over, too. So they put this team together, but again, put it together on the fly. put it together with Udonis uh as essentially a first-time starter. He hadn’t really been a starter the previous year and you mentioned Damon and others. Keon Dueling in that first year um you know played a role but now you’re getting okay Gary Payton’s not Gary Payton anymore but he’s still Gary Payton like there’s a certain edge that he would play with and Antoine was a tough fit. People do forget that like he it was like he he really was a four. They had to play him at the three. They kept rotating between him and Posey as the starting three. I thought Posie would fit right away. He did. Uh just the type of player he was. He was a glue guy. But Jay Will was the most interesting one to me because Jay Will was white chocolate. Jay Will was out of control. Jay Will was a highlight reel. Jay Will could be difficult with coaches. Jay Will had all these different situations that made me fearful of him. And then he came to Miami and he became a pure bring the ball up the court, give it to Dwayne point guard um who made open shots. He made he made a tremendous transformation that year to the point that we would sometimes be like where’s Jay Will? Like do do something dribble behind your back. Do something. Do something. Uh you know be more aggressive, attack more. And of course, the game against Detroit in the uh Eastern Conference Finals, which I’m sure we’re going to talk about more as we go, the clincher, that’s what he did. He he was Jay Will. So, he was able to do that in certain situations. And Antoine had games where he made shots. Posie, of course, came up big in a lot of situations. And then GP had the one the one shot that I think a lot of of people remember. But, I mean, as we go to the other side of this, I I I want to again set the scene. This is a set the scene type episode for stuff we’re going to be doing. But I just want to ask you this because this organization has a reputation for being a championship organization. But you can really make the argument that they were a snake bitten organization prior to ’06. Uh in a year where not a lot went right. Like I said, Shaq missed a lot of time. Stan ended up leaving shown the door. We’re going to get into, you know, sort of the specifics of that. I have a lot to say about that because I think I I reported some stuff incorrectly at the time. um which I always try to try to uh fill in the gaps afterwards. Uh but they were not they were 20 and 19 at one point I believe. Um and when you say I was right about some things that’s always my argument to Sedano who gives me a hard time about this. Uh because I was kind of right about the fit issues and then Dwayne just went nuts and then everybody kind of fit around him which is what we’re going to talk about as we go forward. But uh on the other side, we do want to introduce the sponsor, but I just want to get into just briefly this idea of where they were and kind of what this championship meant as we set the table for a bunch of episodes that are to follow. I do want to mention a great sponsor, the Five Reason Sports Network, our friends over at Real Estate Shop. It’s real estatefl.com. Real estate shopffl.com. This is your place to go to buy or sell real estate. Uh Amanda, Javier, they do a great job for you. It’s a family business. They know what your family needs. They know the South Florida market, specifically Broward County, all over Broward County. They’ve got open houses going on every weekend. So, check them out. It’s real estate shopfl.com. The Fort Lauderdale Realtor on Instagram. Let me ask you, what was your perception of the Heat as of the loss to Detroit in 2005? because all we known was these like really devastating losses going back to the Knicks series from the late 90s. Yeah. And just to piggy back off that for a minute, I was at all those game sevens and game fives that they lost at home against the Knicks. I also was at game seven against the Pistons that you referenced earlier when they lost and Dwayne was injured. Um, you started to think like what were you ever going to get one? Like the Shaq trade happened. You brought in Wade. You didn’t get over the hump. You uh were in a situation where now you had built a contender basically twice like two m three we’ll really call them. Zo got hurt or got sick in one of those, but they had basically gone through three build cycles and they didn’t win a ring yet. And so you did start to get to a place where as a Heat fan cuz people like at this day and age like it’s like you get to the finals, it’s not enough, right? But back then like they had never they had never closed the deal. And you started to wonder like is this going to be a situation where Riley goes his whole career down here and they don’t get it done? Um it that sounds crazy to say out loud these days, right? because like the the expectations have shifted so high, but there was so much heartbreak like you you built these teams, you couldn’t get over the the Knicks that usually would have gotten Riley fired and out the door long, you know, just the optics of losing to the Knicks, who he faxed in his resignation to. Uh then they make all the trades and and they don’t get it done because Zo gets sick. Then they go get Shaq and become like a worldwide team. Wade is on the scene. And so it it was like a moment where uh when you saw the trade happen and I do want to uh remind everybody that the shack trade happened I think in August maybe like August 1st or something or late July and then this trade happened and and you just mentioned it the other day on off the floor August 1st is when this trade happened. So these are late in the offseason moves. It was a moment where you said, “Whoa, like they they’re taking a huge risk here in shuffling things around Shaq and Dwayne, but to your point, they had a finite window to get that done with Shaq.” And I think they recognized that and he was uh in a little worse shape every year as as he came back from when he was acquired. So, they took a huge risk. And I think it’s actually um for like the longstanding fans when they saw the Jimmy build happen and I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but I’m trying to bring this back to current times also. We were waiting for like the the the Eddie Jones for Antoine Walker J Will Posey trade during the Jimmy build. And so I think that th this was when Heat fans, Ethan, started to get kind of conditioned to expect when things didn’t work out that you were going to likely make wholesale changes. Yeah. It’s it’s funny because as you were talking about it, I knew that’s what people are going to hear, right? Why didn’t they do this for Jimmy? Yeah. But the circumstances were a little different then. It it was easier to make these kind of trades. This is many CBAs ago and you can make things fit if you needed to. You know, one of the crazy things you go back to uh the Brian the Brian Grant trade that I mentioned going way back to 2000. Brian came down to Miami and he was so impressed. He talked about this on our podcast at one point that he was willing to take like whatever the mid-level exception was at the time, which was like 4 million. And then his agent, Mark Bartlestein, was like, “No, no, no. we’re we’re gonna get you in a siding trade to get the big contract. Like that’s how impressive it was really that simple before. It’s not now. Um you didn’t have aprons. You didn’t have all of these other circumstances. Teams you can’t deal with because they’re over the apron. Just many many many more complications that honestly the more that we go forward just seem like they’re totally random. Like I I don’t even know what some of it’s funny. CJ McCullum was talking about the idea of not being able to put super teams together and it’s like well I can’t think of the guy who did this. CJ McCullum helped negotiate this deal. So, it just became a lot harder and it became harder specifically after the big three when teams wanted to legislate against the Heat, including the Cavs, uh, who then ended up bringing LeBron back after all of that. Um I I think the big point to make as we go forward in this series too is you know we have given Pat Riley and the organization and this front office a certain amount of grace because they did get over the hump. you know, if they don’t get over the hump in 2006, then most likely, okay, even with Pat’s reputation, uh, we wouldn’t have, and again, it’s all butterfly effect, but like what happened in 2007208 and the two kind of years where they sort of wasted Dwayne’s prime, prime of prime, you know, 2008 through 2010 where he might have been be, you know, BIW, as Pad said, best in the world. like I I don’t know that they even get this group even gets to uh 2010 in which they end up getting LeBron which then has spoiled a generation of of Heath fans you know in you know irreversibly. So it like this title is the is the flash point like it’s not and and I I will acknowledge also that you were enjoying it as a fan so I want you to close with what your feeling was uh when they finally got over the hump. I was not uh I was a reporter at the time, but I was kind of a reporter trying to hold on to my bad opinion. Like I would not say I don’t root anyway. Okay. But especially then I mean now I kind of sort of stray the line a little bit. I’m a fanist whatever and we have a fanbased network. But like at the time I was an objective journalist who had staked his claim that this team was not going to get over the top. And I will say that somewhere deep inside of me and George knows this. I was happy that they were struggling in 2005 2006 because I was like look at that. I was right. You brought in all these guys. They don’t fit. Whole bunch of characters. Udonis has said it’s like the most difficult group he’s ever worked with in his life. That was preassan though so I don’t know. Uh but it was like I was like I was right. And then like I’m in Dallas for game six and Dwayne misses the two free throws. People forget that. Uh, but Jason Terry misses a shot. Whatever. They have a celebration. We’re in the We’re rushing the locker room. We get to the locker room. Uh, Anton Walker is saying he’s going to drink until training camp. Which probably was true because he came to training camp overweight. Jay Will is spraying us with champagne, screaming, “I’m not an effing cancer. I’m not an effing cancer.” Uh, and Zo is answering, who I was the happiest for, by the way. Uh, Zo is answering Rachel Nichols two questions in about 13 minutes, which was it might have been longer than that. You can find it somewhere. Uh, and and I’ll say I couldn’t really enjoy it just cuz this is when you want to be right. So this some people are in my network in our network. Okay, you should listen to this. When you want to be right so bad, it kills the enjoyment of anything. So yeah, I I had all these 15 strong cards. I couldn’t find them after I got divorced. Um, thanks Sean sending me some and I’ve lost some more. But I there were I just couldn’t enjoy it. I couldn’t enjoy it. But I know that what we do now would not exist without it. And so that’s kind of where I’m at. Your Before we so headed to this series, how did you experience 2006? So I enjoyed it enough for both of us. Don’t worry about that. I can tell you that. Um, it was I mean just I can hear Mike English’s voice when he said the Miami Heat are champions of the basketball world and like just thinking that the Heat got to the mountain top like I it it just was you never thought it was going to actually happen. It happened. Um, when I when Zo got to the podium, that’s when I like we talk. It’s so funny how uh the world comes full full circle cuz you know I was like a young teen who cried when Glenn Rice got traded. Um, and then I shed a tear in 06 when I when Zo started to talk at the podium like cuz I had known what he went through and to get back. So that was like a real big moment and and so I’m sh so I’m just crying everywhere, right? I’m crying when when guys get traded. I’m crying when the when the team wins the title. And I’ll just close with this funny story about this. I lived in Orlando at the time in 2006 and watching the game. I was with my wife and uh all of a sudden we get a knock at the door. There’s about seven minutes left in the game. Knock at the door. Doom doom. I answer the door. It’s the Orlando Police Department. We there there had been a call to our apartment that we lived at. They thought that my wife and I were fighting, but we were not. We were watching the game and screaming at the TV. So, the police said, “Can we step in and just hang out here and kind of just see how the situation’s going?” And we were like into the game. So, they came in. So, I watched like the last six minutes of game six with two police officers standing in my room, standing in my apartment just to like make sure that we were actually cheering for the game, which that is what we were doing. And uh then they left and it was the happiest day ever. Like I I just it made all of the heartbreak against the Knicks when I was season ticket holder and going through all those losses and those walks of shame out of the arena with all the Knicks fans flooding the exits. It made all that worth it to get that title. Also, it put Dwayne in a position where like I started to think, oh my gosh, like we could have like a Jordan like level player. And I know that Jordan is like the the apex, right? But Wade is among the greatest of all time now. And so it was just a huge moment and it um for me like it it’s the sweetest title even including the big three years. For me it holds a special place that none of them can touch. Uh because nobody thought it would happen and it was even though the Shaq trade did make the Heat contenders to your point they were 50 and 32. they kind of struggled through the regular season and you didn’t expect them to get it done and they got it done. So it it there was a a a purity and an innocence in the fan base at that time because they had not gone through that in one where like when we were winning with the big three era, it was like puff your chest out, pull your chain, flash it at the camera, like it was a different vibe than ‘ 06 where you really thought like gosh we earn this one. It’s also pre- Twitter and that matters. Uh I it you you were getting everything from TV, from the newspapers. Seems like prehistoric times now. But uh it just felt it felt a lot more innocent, I think, than the big three. When the big three was puff your chest out, but it was also just relief when they won because and they were never they were never going to win enough for anybody. Like that’s the thing like not for outsiders. This team, they won one, it was enough. It is a forgotten championship in a lot of ways historically and that’s one of the reasons why we want to do this series. So Matteo is going to be involved in this series and others also many who covered. Uh we are trying to get through the offseason but we also think this is significant kind of sets the stage and we’ll we’ll talk at times about the current team and kind of where they stand in processes to get back to that ultimate level that they got to in 2006. All right, thanks everybody. Thank you for listening to the five on the floor on the five reason sports network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.

For what will be a month-long endeavor, Ethan Skolnick and Greg Sylvander start a series on the Miami Heat’s first championship, back in 2006. What were the Heat before they broke through, and what were some of the reasons they got there — when not many necessarily expected it?

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