With the acquirement of basketball stars LeBron James and Chris Bosh, the Miami Heat are finally looking complete and competitive.
Since the 2006 championship, the talented Dwyane Wade has been lacking a strong supporting cast, receiving little help from exciting trades that ultimately changed nothing. However, this year his own selfless attitude has guaranteed him a spot on a historical roster and more importantly, a shot at winning multiple golden trophies.
In order to create cap space for a complete transformation of the team, Dwyane demonstrated true leadership and dedication by taking a massive pay cut that allowed the Heat to sign both Lebron and Bosh for five years at 14.5 million dollars per year. This leader personally targeted Lebron and Bosh, and had no problem sharing his team and salary with them if it meant creating one of the best basketball teams the NBA has ever seen. The impressive 2010 Heat roster includes these three superstars and veteran players such as Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Eddie House, and Juwan Howard.
As one could assume, things will be drastically different for the Heat next year. First of all, the demand for tickets has skyrocketed to the point where Heat President Pat Riley decided to fire his entire sales staff seeing that the upcoming season was entirely sold out! In addition to the joyous celebrations that are occurring throughout South Beach and Downtown Miami, various questions have risen concerning the rapidly approaching 2010-2011 NBA season. Will the amazing trio work well together on one team and keep their egos in check? Is there simply too much star power and talent for one coach to manage?
Finally, does this intimidating roster guarantee the Miami Heat a relatively easy pathway to the championship for five consecutive years? Unfortunately, nobody can predict the answers to these questions; however, all Heat fans must believe in their team just as Dwyane Wade did while forming this memorable franchise. In the words of Miami Heat announcer Michael Baiamonte, the time has come for all you Heat fans to “STAND UP… AND…. MAKE SOME NOISE… FOR YOUR… MIAMI HHEEEEAAAATTTTT!”
Sari Libbin is a public relations major. She may be contacted at slibbin@themiamihurricane.com.