NBA History: Looking at all the NBA Champions since 2000

#4 Miami Heat - 3 championships (2006, 2012, and 2013)

San Antonio Spurs v Miami Heat - Game 7

The Miami Heat have three NBA Titles to their name all within the last 13 years. The first title came in 2006 under somewhat odd circumstances. The Heat had lost the 2005 ECF after holding a 3-2 series lead on the defending champions Detroit Pistons. They started the 2005-06 season 11-10 at which point head coach Stan van Gundy decided to resign citing a need to be with his family.

Pat Riley then took over as head coach and the Heat won 41 of their remaining 61 games. With Dwyane Wade emerging as a megastar and a 33-year-old Shaquille O’Neal supplying support, the Heat would win their first NBA title knocking off the Dallas Mavericks in a 6-game NBA Finals Series. Wade would win the Finals MVP Award in 2006. In the deciding Game 6, Wade scored 36 points and hauled in 10 rebounds in a 95-92 Heat victory.

Wade would have to wait 5 more years to make another Finals appearance this time forming a big three in the summer of 2010 with Chris Bosh and LeBron James joining him in Miami. The three 2003 draft class standouts would proceed to lead Miami to 4 consecutive NBA Finals winning 2 and losing two.

In 2011, they fell prey to the experience of the Dallas Mavericks but knocked off the OKC Thunder in 2012. 2013 was a championship repeat for Miami as they managed to knock off the Spurs in a 7-game series.

Ultimately, their last attempt to secure a title failed in 2014 when the Spurs got their revenge beating the Heat in 5 games with Kawhi Leonard’s defense securing him the Finals MVP for the series. However, one simply cannot understate the fact that the Miami Heat made 4 straight NBA Finals.