Miami Heat

  Miami Heat 

Even though Miami’s history isn’t going way back into the past, as they began to play only in 1988, they had some pretty good players who played there in the ‘90s, such as Alonzo Mourning or Tim Hardaway. Pat Riley, who was a former coach, came in as a president of the team and tried to assemble a team that would contend at least for the playoffs, and he did so. Their expectations weren’t high enough to win a championship, so, even if they managed to get some Division titles, Mourning and Hardaway left the organization in 2001 and 2002. The best was yet to come for them, as the Miami Heat drafted Dwyane Wade with their 5^th pick in 2003, which proved to be a very good decision not many years later. Another important piece was added in 2004 when they traded for Shaquille O’Neal, one of the most dominants centers throughout the history of the league. Him and Wade would form a dominant duo, some of the people around the league comparing them to the one who won three rings in Los Angeles, formed by Kobe and Shaq. When the year of 2006 came, the Heat organization saw themselves with the first ever championship in their history, as they stole the win in six games versus Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks. At that time, it was the first ring for a very young Wade, who was only in his 3^rd year in the NBA, and O’Neal’s 4^th one. Two years later, Shaq left the team after having career lows in multiple categories, and the Heat organization kind of went through a rebuilding process for another two years. In 2010, they formed one of biggest hated super-team in NBA history, as they achieved both LeBron James and Chris Bosh as free agents in that summer. That trio formed of perennial All Stars managed to win only two rings for the franchise, doing it back-to-back in 2012 and 2013 and losing the Finals against the Mavs in 2011 and the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. After that Finals loss, LeBron James chose to leave Miami and return back home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and so, the “dynasty” ended right there.