Heat will travel to the Bahamas next week for training camp
For the third time, the Heat will leave the country for training camp.
The team announced that it will train in the Bahamas for the third time in its 35-year franchise history.
Miami will hold camp on the island of New Providence at Baha Mar, a Grand Hyatt-operated property and one of the largest event venues in the Caribbean. The Heat says “the 200,000square-foot indoor and outdoor convention facility features state-of-theart courts for players, elevated seating experiences for viewers, and leading technology to film and broadcast training.”
Baha Mar said the training camp arrangement with the Heat is a multiyear deal.
The Heat previously held training camp in the Bahamas prior to the 2013-14 season (the final season of the Big 3 era) and once again before the 2016-17 season. Both of those camps were held at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort.
The 2013-14 season ended with a loss to the
Spurs in the NBA Finals, a month before LeBron James left the Heat and signed with Cleveland. The 2016-17 team missed the playoffs and finished 41-41 after winning 30 of its final 41 games.
Following media day at FTX Arena on Sept. 26, the Heat will travel to Nassau and conduct twoa-day practices beginning on Sept. 27. The practices will be closed to the public except for the final one on Oct. 1, which will be open to invited guests and children from the Bahamas Youth Basketball Federation.
The team will return to
South Florida on Oct. 1, hold an open scrimmage benefiting cancer research at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3 at FTX Arena, and then open its six-game preseason schedule on Oct. 4 against Minnesota at FTX Arena.
The Heat, in more recent years, held training camp at FTX Arena (including last season) or in West Palm Beach or Boca Raton.
Before the first season of the Big 3 era (2010-11), the Heat held training camp at Eglin Air Force Base in Fort Walton Beach.
Training camp will mark at least the second 2022 trip to the Bahamas for half the Heat’s roster.
This past April, before the playoffs began, several players went to the Bahamas for a vacation arranged by point guard Kyle Lowry.
“Kyle met with me and told me what he wanted to do with the team,” Erik Spoelstra told Yahoo last spring. “He had all the logistics figured out, and I gave him my blessings. There are only about a handful of players, like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Udonis Haslem, who’ve played for this franchise that I know could have pulled off something like this. It shows you how special Kyle is and how much we really respect him as a person and a player.”
This time, players will be going to the Bahamas to work.
The Heat has only one new player signed to a standard contract: draft pick Nikola Jovic.
P.J. Tucker (Philadelphia) and Markieff Morris (Brooklyn) left this offseason.
The Heat opens its regular-season schedule on Wednesday, Oct. 19, against the visiting Chicago Bulls.
Barry Jackson: 305-376-3491, @flasportsbuzz