Miami Heat: Antoine Walker says 2006 title team wasn’t even trying

The Miami Heat’s first franchise championship came in 2006

The Miami Heat’s first title in 2006 was a mark of excellence for an expansion team in the NBA. Pat Riley proved that a winner could be built seemingly overnight with a slew of crafty trades and signings in the 2005 offseason.

Among those were Shaquille O’Neal and Antoine Walker. Walker recently appeared on the Knuckleheads podcast with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles, revealing he was the one who had to ask Shaq to take a pay cut on his impending contract extension.

Walker also revealed some details about the extracurricular activities from that 2006 title-winning season which make the championship all the more impressive.

Antoine Walker speaks on the partying the Miami Heat did in 2006

Speaking to the Knuckleheads podcast, Antoine Walker said he, Gary Payton, James Posey, and Udonis Haslem were frequent partiers throughout the 2006 season. He notes that the team’s top players — Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal — weren’t all that established in the lively off-court lifestyle, but that most of the team was enamored with it.

"“But I always tell people, that season was so amazing, I never partied and played basketball like that in my life. Me, GP, Posey, UD, man, listen, not so much Shaq and D-Wade but us four? Yeah, man we got it in!”"

He mentions he hadn’t done much partying throughout his pro career until Miami, and that he doesn’t quite regret it either, making the most of his time in South Beach. Especially at first while Stan Van Gundy was coaching, Walker wasn’t playing very much and could get away with not being in peak condition.

Pat Riley cracked the whip a little bit because he wanted to play his money.

"“My night life went to another level. Aye, I’m burning both ends of the candle, I’m good. Pat Riley took over, he’s like, ‘look, I play my money.’”"

Walker noted to the podcast that the team was close, and that the lively lifestyle helped them establish an off-court bond that would prove important in the late ends of the season.

"“I ain’t gon’ lie to you, man. That was the closest team, outside of my college team, that I’ve ever been on in the NBA…. It never was a time on the road where you ain’t see 7, 8 guys.”"

What’s remarkable is that the team wasn’t even exactly focused in the regular season, but that the emphasis on spending time together, hanging out, and having fun allowed them to get close and create a chemistry that would serve them well when they put their foot on the pedal in the postseason.

"“We were supposed to win 65 games, number one seed. That wasn’t us, because we had other stuff going on. We was doing all type of things. So that wasn’t the goal, we just knew when we got to the playoffs, we was going to be able to beat anybody.”"

Over a decade later, it’s quite the flex for Walker to reveal that the dominant title-winning team in 2006 wasn’t even trying that hard.