All-time teams have their share of star power

With 2022-23 marking the

Miami Heat’s 35th season, the Sun Sentinel today completes a series of “5 at 35” reflections from staff writer Ira Winderman, who has covered the entirety of the franchise’s 3 ½ decades.

After opening the series with a look at the five greatest games in the team’s history, five franchise-altering moments, the team’s biggest celebrity fans, five of the biggest personalities over the years, five notable Heat lifers and rivalries that have defined the franchise, we continued with our position-by-position breakdowns of the top five shooting guards, point guards, small forwards, power forwards, centers and sixth men since the franchise’s 1988 inception.

Today, we conclude with our perspective on the Heat’s all-time teams.

Throughout this series the goal was to provide context that there was Miami Heat before the 1995 arrival of Pat Riley, the 2010 pairing of the Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and that this is a franchise that continues to evolve as we plan to meet back in 2027 to reflect on the Heat at 40.

FIRSTTEAM

Center: Alonzo Mourning. It could be argued that if Jerry West is the NBA logo, then Mourning stands as the enduring face of the Heat, from scowling shot blocker to current front-office presence. Zo arrived to slay, but he came to stay.

Power forward: Chris Bosh. The tenure proved too fleeting, snuffed out by career-threatening blood clots. But no player in the Heat’s 35 years possessed such a combination of power and finesse, something Bam Adebayo now attempts to emulate.

Small forward: LeBron James. The only player in franchise history to be named NBA Most Valuable Player (in 2012, ’13).