It has been almost exactly 20 years since the Miami Heat won their first-ever NBA championship in 2006, and some members of that team recently came together on The Checkin with Dwyane Wade podcast. Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal was one of them, and he revealed that he got the then-head coach Pat Riley to change their practice schedule because they were always out partying at night.
“You remember when I got him to move the practices back to 12?” O’Neal asked.
Practice used to start at 9:30 a.m., but O’Neal realized that had to change. He revealed that Dwyane Wade, Alonzo Mourning, and Antoine Walker would all break the curfew put in place by the team.
“I had to convince him,” O’Neal said. “Like, ‘Bro, we coming in at 3. We going on the Waffle House at 3. We get done eating the waffles about 5…’ I said, ‘Yo, just move it back.’… That’s when we went on, I think, the 12-game winning streak.”
The 2005-06 Heat didn’t go on a 12-game winning streak at any point. They did win 10 in a row from February to March, which could be the time that O’Neal was referring to. That was quite late into the season.
Wade reckons they were the most unserious championship team of all time, and Walker shared what he used to be up to back then.
“I never partied and played basketball like that in my life,” Walker said. “I mean ’cause we practicing three and a half hours and I’m going to get it in at night, coming in at five or six. That was tough.”
Udonis Haslem revealed the Heat players would make calls before the team plane even landed to set up their spots. They were all about having a good time.
Despite that kind of attitude, the Heat still finished second in the East with a 52-30 record. They beat the Chicago Bulls in six games in the first round and then the New Jersey Nets in five in the Conference Semifinals to set up a titanic clash with the 64-18 Detroit Pistons.
It was the second year in a row that the teams were meeting in the Eastern Conference Finals, with the Pistons winning in seven games in 2005. The Heat would get their revenge in 2006, knocking them out in six games to set up an NBA Finals matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.
The Mavericks would go up 2-0 in the Finals, but Wade then powered a stunning comeback, as the Heat won the next four games to clinch the title. He’d win Finals MVP with averages of 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game.
As for O’Neal, he put up 13.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game in the series. He wasn’t the dominant force of years past, but played his part.
While Riley listened to O’Neal on that occasion, their relationship had certainly changed by 2008. The Heat’s glory days were long gone by then, and the coach wasn’t going to tolerate much at that point. O’Neal revealed he got into a scuffle with Riley at one point and was promptly traded.
“One day, Jason Williams came late,” O’Neal said. “Remember, we used to have that clock? Jason Williams came half a second late, and he was like, ‘Hey man, you need to get out.’ And I told him, ‘Nah, he’s not getting out.’ Then he said, ‘Well, you get out,’ and I said, ‘Motherf**ker, put me out.’ So we got into a little scuffle, and the next day I was traded.”
O’Neal has also admitted that he and Gary Payton didn’t really listen to Riley. That ensured this partnership was not going to last for too long. At least the Heat got a championship out of it.
