Heat will hold training camp again at FAU
MIAMI The Miami Heat will return to Florida Atlantic University for training camp after spending last season’s camp in the Bahamas.
The Heat’s sessions in Boca Raton will run from Sept. 27 through Sept. 30, with camp closed to the public. There are, however, plans for a public scrimmage at FAU on Sept. 30, with those details and a formal announcement of the Heat’s camp plans expected later this week. The Heat’s annual preseason scrimmage has raised funds and drawn attention to breast cancer awareness.
The workouts at FAU will come after the team’s Sept. 26 media day at AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat last year held camp at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort, with NBA teams prohibited from holding camp outside of the country in consecutive years.
The Heat held camp at FAU in 2015, after holding their 2014 camp at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has said he prefers getting away from Miami in order to facilitate bonding.
“It’s an opportunity for us to be around each other for all the in-between times. I like that the most,” he said.
“We’re going to practice. We’re going to do that always. But when you’re away, you’re able to do some other things.”
The return to Boca Raton continues a tradition of preseason work for the Heat in Palm Beach County, with previous training camps held at FAU, Palm Beach Atlantic University and what then was known as Palm Beach Community College.
After starting the team’s Big Three era with training camp with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at the Hurlburt Field Air Force complex in the Florida Panhandle in 2010 and ending it with camp in the Bahamas in 2013, the Heat continue to take preseason retreats away from AmericanAirlines Arena.
The Heat have held training camp at a variety of venues over their first 29 seasons. Their first camp, in 1988, was at the University of Miami.
Heat President Pat Riley for decades has taken his teams on the road for training camp, with his Los Angeles Lakers training in Hawaii and his New York Knicks often holding training camp in Charleston, S.C. The Heat’s ties to Palm Beach County, however, predate Riley’s arrival 22 years ago, when previous management had the team’s camps in Lake Worth.
The Heat currently have 19 players under contract, with teams allowed to carry a maximum of 20 during the preseason before a mandatory cut to 15 by Oct. 16.
The Heat return to AmericanAirlines Arena on Oct. 1 for their preseason opener, against the Atlanta Hawks, the first of six exhibitions, home.
The Heat open their regular season on Oct. 18 at the Amway Center against the Orlando Magic. including three at