Goldberg: On Sunday, the Miami Heat will make history

Younger fans might not realize this, but it wasn’t long ago that the Miami Heat were considered an upstart expansion franchise. 

The Heat joined the NBA in the 1988-89 season and competed in the Western Conference for a year before moving to the more appropriate Eastern Conference. It took them six seasons to post their first winning record. Then, in 1995, Pat Riley left the New York Knicks to coach the Heat. 

That was the first franchise-altering move.

Riley traded for Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway shortly after taking the job.  With Zo and Timmy, Miami competed through the late 90s, battling Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and Patrick Ewing’s Knicks, earning respect but never winning a championship.

Then, a severe kidney disease derailed Mourning’s career. He missed the entire 2002-03 season because of it, and the Heat plummeted back to the bottom of the league standings, winning just 25 games.

In June of 2003, the Heat selected Marquette’s Dwyane Wade with the fifth pick in the draft.

That was the second franchise-altering move.

Of course, you know the rest.

Riley joined the Heat nearly 30 years ago and drafted Wade 21 years ago. Together as player and coach and executive, they brought three banners and league-wide respect to the franchise. 

The Heat are no longer that upstart expansion franchise. Few organizations have had as much success as the Heat over the last 20 years, and certainly none more. And within a week, they will have honored the two figures that shepherded the Heat from a forgotten-about team dropped into the wrong conference to an organization with a rich and vital history.

On Sunday, the Heat will erect a statue to honor a legend. Take a walk around arenas in Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago, and they, too, have immortalized all-timers in bronze. Like his idol, Jordan, and fellow Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, D-Wade will be associated with a franchise and a city for eternity with a shining sculpture alongside the newly-named Dwyane Wade Blvd. Indeed, it is his house, and it is his street.

Just inside, Heat players and their opponents will dribble, dive and sweat on Pat Riley Court, overlooked by three championship banners and six retired jerseys.

These aren’t the new kids on the block. For multiple generations of South Floridians, they are the team most associated with winning and stability. They are wise elder statesmen whose success the Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers aim to replicate. 

Multiple NBA organizations point to the Heat as the model, where winning is expected and everything else takes a backseat.

Seeing what it has become must be shocking and rewarding for so many Heat employees who joined the organization 20 and 30 years ago. 

Look at the other teams that joined the league within the same couple of years as the Heat. The Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic and Minnesota Timberwolves have had their share of history, but none of those organizations have come close to the Heat’s success. 

Ask them how hard it is to become a winning franchise. 

The Heat are less like their expansion contemporaries and more like NBA originals like the Lakers, Celtics and Warriors.

And it all happened in a relative blink of an eye.

The arena on Biscayne Blvd. is more than a home for the Heat. Now, it’s a memorial to greatness, where Riley and Wade will forever set an impossibly high standard. Not just for them or the organization, but also for this blossoming city. 

Because of Wade’s statue, Miamians driving along the bay front will be reminded of that every time they pass by. We may be young, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be the best.