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With the Miami Heat heading to the NBA Finals once again, all eyes are on the franchise and how it continually finds diamonds in the rough who slipped through the NBA draft.
Despite possessing star talents like Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, the Miami Heat have received significant boosts from players such as Gabe Vincent and Caleb Martin during their playoff run. Teams only find that type of talent by having an elite scouting network and an exceptional player development process.
So, Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra will deservedly get most of the credit for continually building solid Heat teams. We should also credit their ownership for empowering the franchise to be run in such an efficient manner.
But who are the Miami Heat's owners?
Micky Arison is the person who owns the Miami Heat franchise and boasts a net worth of $5.6 billion. While that type of money sounds incredible to you and me, it is only good enough so squeak into the top 500 of the world's rich list. According to Forbes, Arison currently sits 467th in the world in terms of net worth.
Arison purchased 88% of the Heat for a $68 million fee in 1995 and has presided over multiple iterations of championship-level rosters since then. Almost 30 years later, Micky Arison will be pleased that the Miami Heat is now valued at roughly $3 billion by Forbes, which is an incredible return on investment.
Of course, you don't become that wealthy by only having one primary investment. Micky Arison is also the CEO of the cruise line Carnival Corporation.
The Miami Heat gear up to face the Denver Nuggets
After defeating the Boston Celtics on May 29, the Heat will now be preparing to face the Denver Nuggets in the NBA Finals. Unlike the Heat, Denver has had a significant amount of rest courtesy of sweeping the LA Lakers in the Western Conference finals.
Unfortunately for the Heat, they will have little time to prepare for the opening game of the NBA Finals, which is set to take place on Thursday at the Ball Arena in Denver.
During the NBA Finals, we will see two elite players go toe-to-toe as both Jimmy Butler and Nikola Jokic search for their first championship ring. While there is no doubt as to the talent of both teams, the Denver Nuggets will enter this series as the heavy favorites to win it all.
However, as we've learned throughout the 2023 playoffs, the Miami Heat thrive on being the underdogs. So far, we've seen the Eastern Conference eighth seed dispatch the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Boston Celtics. So, we should take the Heat lightly at our own peril.
Still, given the Denver Nuggets strength in depth, and the presence of Nikola Jokic, it would appear that we're about to witness an incredible series of elite-level basketball. It's just hard to decide who will be the winner when it's all said and done.
