Miami Heat Tickets

About Miami Heat

The first few seasons in Miami had an audience watch a team try and find itself while the established NBA teams ruled. Basketball fans simply craving a live professional game purchased Heat tickets to a roster full of other team’s castoffs and free agents with no place else to go. Miami’s best chance to build the franchise came through the draft.

Center Ron Seikaly from Syracuse was the most important player chosen in the first draft and the next season the Heat chose Glen Rice and Sherman Douglas to help the offensively inept club that finished with the worst record in their first season. Miami tickets were sold for another season of struggle.

Miami was able to turn things around in the franchise’s fourth season. Kevin Loughery became the new coach and a more mature collective of Seikaly, Rice, and Douglas made the playoffs with the addition of guard Steve Smith. That year was the first year the Miami crowd could buy Heat tickets for the playoffs. Those tickets were for a first round exit against the Chicago Bulls.

The Heat would reach new heights of success with the hiring of Pat Riley as head coach and president in 1995. Riley almost immediately rebuilt the roster in the image he wanted. His moves brought in Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, Chris Gatling, and Walt Williams. Riley’s influence on the roster and on the court took Miami back to the playoffs. Once again Heat tickets were entry to a first-round exit by way of the Chicago Bulls.

Miami continued to renovate the roster in 1996. Dan Majerle, P.J. Brown, Jamal Mashburn, and Voshon Lenard helped Miami provide tickets beyond the first round of the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. The Heat made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals before once again being eliminated by the Chicago Bulls.

While the ‘90s up to that point had the Heat hitting a wall against Michael Jordan the Bulls, the rest of the decade found the Heat with a new rival, the New York Knicks. For three straight years Heat tickets to the postseason ended after the series with the Knicks. In 1998 and 1999 that trip ended in the first round and in 2000 that road ended in the second round.

The next season the Heat decided it was time to rebuild the team. Keeping Mourning, Marjole, and Hardaway, Miami made big trades to give them new help from Anthony Mason, Eddie Jones, and Ricky Davis. Riley’s new squad was supposed to run away with the Eastern Conference title, but Mourning took the season off to recover from a rare liver condition. Mason stepped up and became an All Star, but the team missed its star center and Heat tickets again would go no further than the first round.

The Heat players of the late ‘90s began to leave Miami for the next two difficult seasons. For the first time in Riley’s career as a coach the Heat finished the season with regular season tickets and no postseason action. Riley stepped down and Steve Van Gundy took over as coach. A new Heat nucleus began to develop. Free Agent Lamar Odom, un-drafted rookie Udonis Haslem, and first round pick Dwayne Wade would become the core of the team.

The 2003-04 season returned the club to respectability, but Riley wanted more as team president. He traded Odom and several other players to the Los Angeles Lakers to acquire a disgruntled Shaquille O’Neal. Shaq and Wade found company with veteran sharp shooter Steve Smith and a serviceable Alonzo Mourning returning to the club. Playoff tickets for that year went to the Conference Finals, but the next season after another huge trade that brought Miami Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, and James Posey, Miami would go all the way.

Heat tickets for the exciting 2005-06 season saw the collection of talent and the return of Pat Riley to the bench take Miami to the finals against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. The Heat prevailed in the series 4 games to 2 and envisioned a future with Shaq and Wade leading to a glorious near future. That vision was ended quickly by injuries to both stars. Miami has tried to retool the team again, banking on Wade’s healthy return. The club sent Shaq to the Suns for Shawn Marion in an exchange of All Stars and hope the young Marion will find a place by the side of Wade to take the team back to the championship.