Miami Heat: The Story of Rony Seikaly and His Incredible Journey

Former Miami Heat big, Rony Seikaly, plays his collegiate ball at Syracuse

Basketball Begins

Rony’s older brother was attending Colgate University in New York and while in the States visiting him, Rony signed up for a Syracuse basketball camp. Upon seeing him register, legendary Orangeman Coach and Hall of Famer, Jim Boeheim, invited him to one of the team’s practices, then signed him to a scholarship on the spot!

After all, a nearly seven foot tall, raw, undiscovered 17 year old doesn’t fall in your lap very often. Especially in the 80’s when scouting/recruiting was limited to local states and regions let alone internationally!

Upon his return to Athens, Rony started getting tons of recruitment letters from other colleges in the US as well. He of course ignored all of them since he already signed with Cuse.

Starting for Syracuse his freshman year in 1985, Seikaly was super athletic for being 6-10, yet completely raw since he just started playing organized basketball. With sheer will and effort (along with great coaching), Rony got better every year as he worked his way up to the NCAA All-American team before graduating.

Playing in college basketball’s most prominent conference, the Big East, sure did help accelerate his development as well. At the time, this was the same conference as Georgetown, who had arguably the best player in college basketball in Patrick Ewing (whom Seikaly would battle throughout his career in the NBA as well).

Seikaly was immediately thrown into the behemoth of big men playing in the Big East. Sure enough, he did more than hold his own as he and his Orange beat the number one ranked Hoyas in Rony’s freshman year, 1985!

Syracuse even made the 1987 NCAA Championship game with the likes of Sherman Douglas (NCAA record for most assists in a game AND Heat draft pick in 1989) and Derrick Coleman playing by his side. The Orangemen ended up losing by one point to Indiana University in an all-time NCAA classic but Coleman and Seikaly still remain numbers one and two on the all-time Career Rebounds list in Syracuse school history.

By the time he left Syracuse Rony was also the fourth leading scorer in school history. With his rise to stardom, an international battle ensued as both Greece and Lebanon wanted to claim Rony, while and yet he was playing ball in the USA.

Back then, information on other countries was not as easily accessible without something such as the internet, so many people relied on word of mouth “facts.” Many people thought he was from Greece since he was introduced during games from the American High School in Athens, Greece.

Seikaly ended up playing on the Lebanese National Team during international events.