Why Miami Heat fans love Goran Dragic so much

(Thread)

It’s February 2015. Goran Dragic is a member of the Phoenix Suns. He’s coming off of averaging 20.3ppg and 5.9 assists, making an All NBA team. He’s in the middle of another good season, but it’s a contract year. He tells the Suns organization he won’t be returning

Goran has a say in where he wants to be traded, with the deadline approaching. The three finalists are the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers, and Miami Heat

A deal is presented, Dragic approves it, and it’s finalized. It’s a three team deal, but basically, the Heat give up Norris Cole, Shawne Williams and Justin Hamilton for Goran and Zoran Dragic

This is about 7 months after LeBron went back to Cleveland. Goran isn’t LeBron, but it’s still not an awful thing to add an All NBA player to the Wade and Bosh duo

It’s also one month into Hassan Whiteside breaking out and going on a tear where he seems like a diamond in the rough

Goran steps in, and has 0 issue being a third option behind Wade and Bosh, and feels no envy towards the hype around Hassan Whiteside. Just comes in, does his job, and averages 16ppg for the Heat in that half a season. The Heat miss the playoffs by one game

You’d think ok, maybe that season didn’t work out, but here’s what you have to remember. The very next day after Goran was traded to Miami, it was announced that Chris Bosh would miss the rest of that season with life threatening lung issues

That offseason, the Heat are monitoring Chris Bosh, and they draft Justise Winslow and Josh Richardson. Originally, the plan was to develop Josh into being the point guard of the future. Not only does Goran accept it, but he helps Josh along the way

2015-2016

Bosh is back, Wade is in the final year of his contract, Justise is a great defender off the bench, and Josh has a rough rookie year when he’s not in the G-League, and Hassan has a monster year

The team was doing well that season, but on February 9th, Chris Bosh played what ended up being the last game of his career because he developed more blood clots in his lungs

That year, Goran played a few less minutes, and his scoring went down a little. He had to share with the franchise’s icon and rising star (or so we thought), all while the team was trying to develop his replacement in Josh Richardson. He didn’t complain once

Less than 2 years after LeBron left, the Heat made it into the playoffs as a 3 seed. Goran stepped up in his first playoffs as a starter, and some heroics from Wade didn’t hurt. The injury bug bit the team hard in the second round, and they fell 1 game short of the ECF

The plan that summer was to bring that team back, with another superstar. They re-signed Hassan to a max contract, and pursued Kevin Durant. By the time KD went to the Warriors, Dwyane felt alienated and was tired of taking pay cuts. He signed with his hometown team

Pat Riley scrambled and matched Brooklyn’s $50 million offer for Tyler Johnson, and signed Dion Waiters, James Johnson & Wayne Ellington. This is what Goran had to deal with

The 2016-2017 started the way you’d expect for a team who just lost the best player in franchise history and made a bunch of weird signings. The Heat started the season 11-30. A lot of fans just wanted the team to tank

Tanking isn’t the Heat way, so they kept fighting, and did a complete 180. Went 30-11 in the second half of the season and finished at .500

People remember the Dion Waiters moments from that season. They don’t remember the fact he was playing off of Goran. Goran averaged 20 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds that season.

Miami only missed the playoffs that year because Dwyane & the Bulls had the tiebreaker

That offseason, the Heat targeted Gordon Hayward. Hassan Whiteside had just averaged career highs in almost all categories, but he just wasn’t maturing. When Hayward signed with Boston, that gave Miami the chance to sign Kelly Olynyk. They also drafted Bam Adebayo

It was clear from summer league that Bam was something special. The way Hassan handled this, and the way Goran handled the Josh Richardson point guard experiment a couple of years prior were like night and day

The better Bam would do, the more frustrated Hassan would get. The more minutes Bam would play, the more Hassan would act out. He’d leave games early, complain to the media, etc.

As the ‘17-‘18 season went along, Bam started to get more opportunity, and Hassan’s attitude started getting worse. Goran kept focus and kept the team afloat

He had just spent the past 2 years as the team’s best player, and was honestly never really treated like it. But he just hooped and tried to win

By then, Dwyane had moved on to Cleveland. As if Goran hadn’t already been overlooked enough, at the deadline, Cleveland broke their whole team up and sent Dwyane back to Miami. Goran was ecstatic for him

10 days after Dwyane returned to Miami, and just over 2 years after Chris Bosh was forced to retire early, the Heat had an All Star.

Goran Dragic

The Heat finished that season 44-38, and made it into the playoffs as a 6th seed. Goran came to play. He averaged 18.6 points and 4.6 assists, shooting 47% from the field. But Philly was too much, and the Heat lost in 5

That offseason, the only new player the Heat picked up was some guy named Duncan Robinson, but Dwyane Wade announced he was returning for his final NBA season. That year was obviously gonna be all about Dwyane

Goran trained harder than he ever had before that offseason, but the problem is, he burned himself out. He had his worst year since 2012

By then, Josh Richardson had turned himself into a real NBA player. The point guard experiment didn’t work, so he didn’t replace Goran on the depth chart, but he did become the Heat’s primary scoring option

They also slowly started to develop Justise Winslow as a point guard. Goran was supportive of both decisions

During that time, Jimmy Butler made it clear that he wanted Minnesota to trade him to Miami. The teams couldn’t get a deal done, and he was traded to Philadelphia

Goran had his worst season since 2012, and the Heat missed the playoffs by 2 games. Ironically, Dwyane’s final home game was against Jimmy and the Sixers. Jimmy didn’t play much, but he showed up wearing this

The Wade era ended, and the Sixers didn’t re-sign Jimmy. Bam had proven he was too good to be anyone’s backup, and Hassan’s attitude was too far gone. Two things were clear that offseason.

Jimmy had to come, and Hassan had to go

Miami had to figure out a way to work out a sign-and -trade with Philly to get Jimmy. They had to get multiple teams involved.

Goran got traded to the Dallas Mavericks. The deal was done

Mark Cuban changed his mind at the last second and rescinded his offer. Miami and Philly figured something else out. Hassan went to Portland, Jimmy came to Miami, and Goran stayed in Miami

Goran would’ve been well within his rights to be bitter and mess the team up. This dude bonded with Jimmy over soccer and became instant best friends with the dude the Heat had just tried to trade him for

Goran wasn’t in the plans though, and the Heat felt like Justise developed into a good enough point guard to start over him. Goran just decided his goal would be to win 6th Man of the Year

When Justise kept getting injured, Spo just started an undrafted rookie over Goran. Goran helped him out and wanted him to win rookie of the year

Goran averaged 16 points and 5 assists off the bench in the regular season

The pandemic happened, the season was suspended, and the only reason Goran got his starting spot back was because Kendrick Nunn caught Covid

In the playoffs, Goran averaged 20 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. The team doesn’t make it to the Finals without him

For Heat fans, Goran getting injured in Game 1 of the Finals isn’t as simple as one of the team’s most productive players not being on the court. We watched this dude sacrifice over and over again for 6 years because he just wanted to win. Him being robbed of that is devastating

Nobody on that team, or maybe even in the league deserved a chance to compete in the Finals more than Goran Dragic

We need number 7 to be retired as soon as Goran retires. It’s not even a question at this point