OPINION: The 2006 Miami Heat were special, no matter what's said

CBS ranked the last 25 NBA champions, and the 2005-06 Miami Heat are notably low at number #24. It will be 20 years this upcoming season since Miami’s first championship, when they defeated the Chicago Bulls in six, the New Jersey Nets in five, the Detroit Pistons in six and the Dallas Mavericks in six to get there. Is the ranking fair?

The 2006 Heat were the top defensive team of the playoffs, allowing only 32.1 points per game in the paint, after being ninth-ranked in the regular season. 

Still, they were not a good regular-season outfit. They are one of 24 championship teams to log below 53 wins in the regular season; 18 were recorded in 1979 or before; two were in the 1990s; and four have come after 2000. 

Of all the champions since 2000, here are the largest jumps (double digits) between leading scorers in the playoffs on one team:

-11.9 points on the 2009 Los Angeles Lakers (Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol).

-11.5 points on the 2019 Toronto Raptors (Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam).

- 10.2 points on the 2011 Dallas Mavericks (Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry).

-10 points on the 2013 Heat (LeBron James and Dwyane Wade).

-10 points on the 2006 Heat (Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal). 

-10 points on the 2003 San Antonio Spurs (Tim Duncan and Tony Parker)

O’Neal’s potency as a scorer decreased by the time the 2006 Finals started, partially because he was guarded as if it were still 2000, as Ethan Skolnick likes to say. But that was a risky gameplan that didn’t pay off because one of his strengths is passing out of the post. Never forget how Pat Riley said he was the best passing big man he had out of the post, and he coached Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an excellent connector.