J-Speaks: Heat Raise Shaq's No. 32 Jersey

On July 14, 2004, the Miami Heat acquired Three-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal from the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, and a future first-round draft pick. He and then rising star and eventual perennial All-Star guard Dwyane Wade along with a couple future Hall of Famers led the Miami Heat to their first NBA championship in 2006 over the Dallas Mavericks in six games. Three days ago, the Heat organization honored the 15-time All-Star in the best way possible.

During intermission of the Heat’s 115-107 win versus the Los Angeles Lakers (12-22) on TNT, they honored the man who brought them their first title by raising his No. 32 jersey to the rafters of the American Airlines Arena.

O’Neal joined his former teammate on that 2006 title team Alonzo Mourning (No. 33) and Tim Hardaway (No. 10) as the only players in Heat history to have their jersey numbers retired by the Heat organization.

In his four seasons with the Heat, O’Neal, who called the Lakers versus Heat tilt on TNT with Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller for NBA on TNT played in 205 games and averaged 19.6 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.8 block shots and shot 60 percent.

O’Neal, who No. 34 was retired by the Lakers a couple of years ago, became just the 12^th former player in NBA history to have their jersey retired multiple times joining Hall of Famers, the late Wilt Chamberlin; Oscar Robertson; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Peter Press “Pistol Pete” Maravich; Julius “Dr. J” Erving; Moses Malone; O’Neal colleague at TNT Charles Barkley; Michael Jordan; Nate Thurmond; Bob Lanier and Clyde Drexler.

The Master of Ceremonies for this great occasion was Miami Heat play-by-play commentator for FOX Sports Sun Sports Eric Reid.

“The Miami Heat is in its 29^th season as an NBA franchise. We are a proud and elite NBA franchise. One of just six teams in the history of the NBA to have won at least three championships and tonight, we honor and celebrate Shaquille O’Neal, who helped bring Miami and the Heat global appeal and our first NBA championship,” Reid said at the start of the festivities.

The Heat organization presented many gifts to O’Neal, which consisted of a $50,000 donation to his foundation the Odessa Chambliss Quality of Life Fund, courtesy of the Miami Heat Charitable Fund and a framed replica No. 32 jersey banner, one that was exactly like the one that was raised and will hang from the rafters of the AAA.

The third gift presented to Shaq was one of sentimental value. In honor of his arrival in South Florida on the previously mentioned afternoon of July 14, 2004 when he arrived in a big 18-Wheeler, the Heat presented a miniature diesel powered semi-truck that was driven onto the hardwood of the Triple-A by nonother than O’Neal’s proud mom, Ms. Lucille O’Neal.

The fans in attendance at the Triple-A also were a major part of the ceremony as they received commemorative T-shirts with the No. 32 on them.

The first person to speak to the audience about the man of the hour was Hall of Famer and the man who helped bring O’Neal to South Florida, Heat President of Basketball Operations Pat Riley.

He too presented O’Neal a gift as well. Something Riley said that he had been saving for a long time. It was a bunch of small cards which had the Larry O’Brien trophy on one side and the theme of that 2006 title team on the other that was “15 Strong.” Riley dumped those cards from a bag right onto O’Neal’s head.

The point of that moment though was a to remind the audience that the team went through a lot to get to that moment of June 20, 2006. That was the date when the Heat, led by O’Neal, Wade and Riley captured the Heat’s first title.

On that night in the locker room of the Mavs home court of the American Airlines Centre, Riley said to the audience that there were over 200,000 of those “15 Strong” cards that the team collected and kept and Riley wanted O’Neal and his family to have a few of those cards as a memento.

“Once you have an opportunity to be a once-in-a-lifetime player and come to a team like the Miami Heat at that time that was knocking on the door, Shaquille O’Neal had a lot to do as much as anybody and probably more than most players did for the Heat in the prior years,” Riley said.

It was during that time, the Heat’s mainstays of Mourning and Hardaway were knocking on the door of winning a title in the late 1990s, but could not get through. A few years later, the Heat had two more young building blocks of Wade and Udonis Haslem, who along with current head coach Erik Spoelstra who joined the halftime festivities.

While those two up and coming talents along with a few veteran players like guards Jason Williams and future Hall of Famer Gary Payton; swingman James Posey, All-Star forward Antoine Walker alongside O’Neal, the Heat captured the title.

“We would not have won the championship in 2006 without the efforts of Shaquille O’Neal,” Riley said. “Love the man. He’s simply is one of the greatest of all-time and when you have an opportunity to acquire a player like that. That can change your franchise and change your city and help you do something that you desperately wanted to do for a long time and that is to win a championship and he delivered on that promise. When he showed up on July the 20^th in an 18-wheeler big semi-diesel in front of the American Airlines Arena. It’s right over there and he got out of that 18-wheeler and he walked up the stairways of the American Airlines Arena with a bunch of water bazookas and getting all the fans all excited and he said, ‘I guarantee you and I promise you we will win a championship.’ And he delivered on that promise.”

Riley also said that every night of that season before the team went onto the court O’Neal would sit next to Coach Riley on the bench and he would always rub the championship ring that Riley wore on his hand and say to him, “Coach. We are going to get one of those. We are going to get another one of those.”

While Wade did the heavy lifting in terms of scoring to help the Heat win that 2006 title and the rest of the cast did their parts, the Heat are not champions without the efforts of O’Neal.

“He’s a great man,” Riley said. “He’s a great player. We’re so honored tonight to be able to do something we wanted to do for a long time. He’s so deserving to be up there with Zo and Tim Hardaway.”

When it was time for the Hall of Famer to address the audience, O’Neal began by taking the time for the audience to pay homage to a key player on not just that 2006 title team, but one of the best players to ever wear a Heat uniform in Haslem.

“I just want to say thank you. You are the true definition of Miami,” O’Neal said to the audience about the longtime Heat forward and Floridian that was undrafted out of University of Florida. “You are true definition of a championship player. Of a hard worker. If it wasn’t for you in 2006, we definitely wouldn’t have that championship.”

He also showed love to Mourning, who went No. 2 overall out of Georgetown in their draft back in 1992 and who he battled with for O’Neal’s first four years in the league when he was with the Orlando Magic and Mourning was with the Charlotte Hornets.

O’Neal that back in 2005-06 when Riley called him into the office to bring to his attention that Mourning wanted to come back and join the Heat for their quest to capture that first title.

“Let me think about it Pat,” O’Neal said. His answer was,” Hell yeah! Tell him come on!”

While O’Neal did not have a topnotch performance in the 2006 Finals, it was Zo who stepped up his game and brought his trademark intensity and ferocity that O’Neal saw in his eye that this opportunity had to be seized, which it was.

O’Neal thanked Mourning at his Hall of Fame induction back in September and he thanked him again at his jersey retirement back on Thursday night.

O’Neal also said to the audience that he was watching a Heat game when they were playing against the Hornets and Wade. When he was on the trading block with the Lakers, he said that he if he was going to be dealt anywhere, he wanted to be dealt to the Heat. After meeting with Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison in Rome, he and the organization got on the same page and the rest is history.

“I want to thank the Arison family. I want to thank the Heat organization. Pat. I want to thank you guys. I want to thank everybody,” O’Neal said. “It was great times.”

It is hard to think that when O’Neal and the Heat organization parted ways after four seasons that they concluded things not on the best of terms. When the call came from a Heat official Tim Donovan months back that they want to retire his jersey, he thought he was being pranked.

After what took place last Thursday night, it was very clear that the Heat’s always wanted to pay homage to O’Neal’s time with the team, especially when he played a major role in getting their first of three titles. That is something O’Neal addressed to the audience in the Triple-A and those that watched on TNT.

“A lot of people think we had problems,” he said to audience and to Riley. “We don’t have problems and I respect you. I respect this organization. I respect this family and the day you decided to take over, I knew we were going to win. I knew we were going to win and this man will do anything for this organization.”

Riley, who will go to any limits to make a point. O’Neal told a story of Riley one day coming into the locker room with a bucket of water and a sheet with the stat of the world record of holding his breath under water is six minutes. Riley dunked his head in the bucket of water for nearly 10 minutes. O’Neal, Haslem and Mourning asked if Riley was okay. He emerged from the bucket saying, “See we can do,” referring to the team of winning a title that season.

More than anything else, he helped make basketball a major part of the Miami community because for a long time, the state of Florida was mainly known for football, college and professional with the Miami Dolphins. O’Neal, Wade and then LeBron James and Chris Bosh when they came to South Florida from 2010-14 help make Heat basketball part of the sports landscape.  

While the Heat are going through a rebuilding transition, this night was more than just about the retirement of a former great player’s jersey. This was the celebration and trip down memory lane of how the Miami Heat began the journey from being just another team to a championship team and a first-class organization and that happened with the drafting of Wade and the acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal. The result, three championships in the last 10 seasons.

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of 12/22/16 8 p.m. NBA Tip-Off, presented Autotrader with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley; The American Express Halftime Report of NBA on TNT contest between the Los Angeles Lakers versus Miami Heat with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal and Ros Gold-Onwude; 12/22/16 “The Associated Press” article “To The Rafters: Heat Retire Shaq No. 32 Jersey,” by Tim Reynolds; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaquille_O’Neal; http://en.m/wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Heat and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Maravich.