History of the Miami Heat (original) (raw)

The Miami Heat is an American professional basketball team based in the southern city of Miami, Florida. The team was launched in 1988 and played in the 1988–89 season of the National Basketball Association. The next season they moved from the Western Conference to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. After a mainly mediocre performance in the first few seasons, there were several team changes in 1995 and 1996 under head coach Pat Riley, including the recruitment of Isaac Austin and P.J. Brown. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 1996–97. They did not reach the conference finals again until 2004–05, under new head coach Stan Van Gundy and with Dwyane Wade as a leading team member.