The Miami Heat’s ’06 files: Setting the stage

The dream season became a nightmare as the Pistons celebrated as Eastern Conference champions in the Heat’s house following Game 7 in 2005. The hosts exited to the locker room with their pride wounded, looking like they’d seen an apparition after blowing a 3-2 lead.

Two sweeps against New Jersey and Washington were inconsequential because what could have gone wrong in the fourth quarter did. The Heat got away from what worked- giving it to Shaquille O’Neal- instead Dwyane Wade took bad shots and the role players did too much, including Damon Jones, whose turnover with two minutes left resulted in a Rip Hamilton pick-6, tying the game.

Wade said after that, “They made plays at the end, you know, that we didn’t make. That was the main thing.”

On the other side, Chauncey Billups buried a trifecta and coffin-closing free throws. Rasheed Wallace took the lead for good with freebies and made a vital putback with under a minute left on the next possession. 

The Heat’s clock management was suspect, and Wade didn’t get a clean look from deep while down four points with seven seconds left. 

O’Neal was the white whale that the front office acquired the previous summer, instantly elevating them to contending status. He was even better than in his last year with the Lakers after shedding around 40 pounds, too, and his presence with the remaining ingredients racked up 59 regular-season victories, the second-most in franchise history at the time. 

The one-two combination with O’Neal and Wade was as tough to stop as any league duo, but the latter was compromised with a rib injury suffered in Game 5 and needed an injection before tip-off of Game 7. Ron Culp, who was the Heat’s first trainer and later died in 2021 of cardiac arrest per his official obituary, applied heat to the rib area during timeouts.

Heat play-by-play broadcaster Eric Reid told Five Reasons Sports Network that the moment Wade got hurt was a “high point and a low point at the same point.” He tried warming up for Game 6, but never played.  

The Heat’s locker room was quiet after elimination because they felt they let one slip away. O’Neal’s voice usually filled every room with bass, but not this time. The Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds was present for the scene. He told FRSN, “If you weren’t within six inches of him, you couldn’t hear him.”  

O’Neal was pissed off not just at the outcome but at coach Stan Van Gundy as well because he wanted the ball more late. He complained to anyone who would listen about Van Gundy later that offseason. 

Management’s first order of business was to improve when league rules allowed. Team president Pat Riley called Wade in the summer for his input on moves and received feedback from his surprised star player. Wade publicly said on Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith during the 2005-06 season that the moves confused him. The changes included: 

-Certified playmaker Jason Williams via five-team trade from Memphis. 

-Top-shelf perimeter defender and 3-point marksman James Posey via five-team trade from Memphis.

-Antoine Walker, a former 20-point-per-game scorer, arrived via a five-team trade.

-Gary Payton, whom the Heat wanted for multiple years, committed on Sept. 22. Payton’s defensive prowess was instantly going to help the Heat at guarding at pick and roll, a notorious weakness for O’Neal, who was his teammate in 2003-04 in LA. 

-Jason Kapono, the 10th man for the Charlotte Bobcats in 2004-05, was an extra body with outside range. He signed as a free agent on Oct. 3.

One of the consequences of Eddie Jones’ inclusion in the Memphis trade was that more was demanded of Wade on defense. Wade added on Quite Frankly, “My concern was defensively… as a young player, I didn’t know how to take that, but I came in and worked hard to become the best defender I can for this team to help us win and still be productive on the offensive end.” The other departures included Keyon Dooling, Rasual Butler, D. Jones, Steve Smith and Christian Laettner.

Additionally, one advantage the Heat had going into 2005-06 was that Alonzo Mourning was arguably the best backup big man in the NBA. He was no longer the man who was second and third in consecutive years in MVP voting while winning back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year awards because of a kidney scare years earlier, but Mourning could still guard well and was a respected member of the team. He returned to the Heat on March 1, 2005.

Reid said, “On paper, it looked like the greatest team that the franchise had ever put together.” For that reason, the mood around the team was all or nothing. Despite Wade only going into year three, O’Neal would turn 33 that season and with limited time before his powers declined further.

 “Some players didn’t love how hard that training camp was,” Reynolds said. “Stan Van Gundy was the coach in that camp, but it was a Pat Riley training camp in a lot of ways.” Multiple members of the team did not show up in Heat shape.

While management did its job, making bold alterations for a squad nearly there, one cloud hung in the backdrop: Before the upcoming campaign, Riley said he wanted to be more hands-on with the team, unnecessarily creating speculation about Van Gundy’s job security. 

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-Stay tuned for more podcasts and written episodes of the ‘06 Files during the Heat’s 2025-26 season.