November 3
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Dwyane Wade, Jermaine O'Neal and Daequan Cook all missed Monday's practice as the Miami Heat prepared for Tuesday night's lone visit of the season by Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns. Wade did not even make it to the session, instead tied up in a courtroom in a matter related to a failed business interest. O'Neal watched from the side, a day after breaking his nose late in Sunday's 95-87 victory over the Bulls. And Cook was held out with the same shoulder ailment that forced him to skip the Chicago game. In addition, guard Chris Quinn, who had been out since the start of training camp with a sprained ankle, went through the entire session and has been deemed healthy enough to return. The ..."
November 1
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Erik Spoelstra's argument was mostly halfhearted, as he challenged the second-quarter technical foul Jermaine O'Neal was assessed for following a dunk with a chin-up on the rim. In fact, it could be argued that the second-year Miami Heat coach savored the moment in Friday night's victory in Indiana almost as much as the 14th-year center did. "If he's jumping that high," Spoelstra said, "I'll take anything." To say O'Neal has shown a spring in his step in the Heat's 2-0 start would be understatement. His consecutive games of 22 points and 12 rebounds represent the first time in the franchise's 22 seasons a player has opened with back-to-back 20-10 performances. For a player who averaged 13 ..."
October 31
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
It wasn't exactly the Indy 500. But the Miami Heat's 17 consecutive losses at Conseco Fieldhouse certainly felt like triple-digit misery. Now? Now there is a one-game winning streak in Indiana, with Friday's 96-83 victory over the Indiana Pacers. "It was gratifying," coach Erik Spoelstra said. "To have this feeling here hasn't happened very often for us." After 14 consecutive regular-season losses in Conseco, with three more in the playoffs, the Heat finds itself with its first 2-0 start to a season since it went 4-0 to open 2004-05. Both victim and former victimizer contributed for the Heat. Guard Dwyane Wade, who had lost all 11 of his previous Conseco visits, led the Heat with 32 ..."
October 19
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Heat center Jermaine O'Neal has always talked the talk, but in the last five years a myriad of injuries haven't allowed him to walk the walk like he used to. But despite playing without knee pain or swelling for the first time in years after undergoing a grueling, eight-week workout regimen with renowned Chicago-based fitness guru Tim Grover, O'Neal has still been slowed by nagging injuries such as foot, groin and shoulder tweaks, limiting his minutes and production (averaging 8.3 points, three rebounds in nearly 22 minutes) in appearing in three of the five exhibition games. That said, O'Neal, who turned 31 last Tuesday, is confident he will not only be ready for the season-opener against ..."
October 8
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Jermaine O'Neal immediately made sure to quell the concerns. "Not the knees," the Heat center before Wednesday night's 90-86 preseason loss to the Orlando Magic at Amway Arena, "it's not the knees." But it was a game played in the injury absence of O'Neal, and considering the 14th-season veteran's history, that's always a concern. "I'll be back at practice ready to go on Friday," O'Neal said, with the Heat expected to be given Thursday off, before beginning preparations for Sunday's home exhibition opener against the Spurs. "I have no doubt in my mind that I'll be ready to rock and roll at a high level come Sunday." O'Neal has been limited since being kicked in the left foot during the ..."
September 29
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Heat center Jermaine O'Neal won't be accompanied by his "best friend" when the team opens training camp Tuesday at AmericanAirlines Arena. Consider that a good thing. It turns out O'Neal's "best friend" is a portable ice machine. It was his constant companion for three years because O'Neal's injured left knee would swell so much and so often he needed a constant source of ice to treat the ailment. That shouldn't be the case this season, his 14th in the NBA. "I'm 100 percent (healthy)," O'Neal said at Monday's Media Day. "The knee isn't giving me any problems." If that's true it could be a comeback season for O'Neal, who will earn $23 million this year, the final year of his contract. And ..."
March 24
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Miami Heat center Jermaine O'Neal was held out of Monday night's game against the Memphis Grizzlies at AmericanAirlines Arena due to a bruised right hip. Coach Erik Spoelstra said O'Neal was injured last week while unsuccessfully attempting to draw a charge against Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce. "It's definitely just one game," said O'Neal, who vowed to be back in the starting lineup for Wednesday night's road game against the Indiana Pacers. "I'm just trying to calm it down. "We're not worried about it at all." O'Neal said Sunday's game against the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills was the first time the ailment significantly limited his mobility. He closed that game with ..."
March 13
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
It was only six points: Two baskets, two free throws. But for Jermaine O'Neal, it was a start. For the first time since arriving a month ago, the veteran center mattered in a fourth quarter, mattered at the finish. For the Heat, that made Wednesday's 107-99 victory over the Celtics significant. Plan B just might take some of the pressure off Dwyane Wade, after all. "It's very important to have that ability to go down in the post and him make not only the jump shot, but also go to the basket," Wade said. Before the victory over the Celtics, O'Neal had not scored more than four points in the fourth quarter of any of his previous 11 Heat appearances. And these were no accidental points. They ..."
February 24
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Lawyers. Arbitrators. League officials. Media. Fans. Jermaine O'Neal had a lot of explaining to do, to all sorts of people, and none of it was pleasant. "But the toughest part for me was to explain it to my daughter," he says. He hadn't brought himself to tell Asjia what had happened on Nov. 19, 2004, or why, in the days that followed, he was home watching games in progress rather than reviewing games on tape. But a sharp 5-year-old doesn't take long to figure it out, especially when her friends are fans of her father, and that father had recently participated in the ugliest brawl in NBA history. "Dad, somebody told me you were suspended for punching somebody."Her information was accurate, ..."
February 19
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Jermaine O'Neal's South Florida welcome included an elbow to the right eye from Mike Miller and enough Minnesota Timberwolves 3-pointers to leave the Miami Heat feeling dazed. What began as a triumphant arrival for O'Neal, with an early 11-point Heat lead, turned into a defenseless showing and a 111-104 loss Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. "It's a terrible loss," Dwyane Wade said after his game-high 37 points and 12 assists weren't enough to rescue the Heat. The new-look Heat, at least in O'Neal's debut, proved incapable of rebounding from its early blown lead, or rebounding at all, for that matter. Despite gaining much-needed size with the addition of O'Neal in last week's ..."
February 14
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Dave Hyde
"
Got a big man in Jermaine O'Neal. Kept the future star of Michael Beasley. Pointed the salary cap toward the all-important summer of 2010. What's not to like for the Heat's today and tomorrow? It even got elastic Jamario Moon and a No. 1 draft pick out of Toronto, for whatever they're worth. And it's worth seeing exactly what they are. Patiently, logically, resourcefully, Heat President Pat Riley waited to make the deal a source said was on the table for six weeks until nothing better was coming and O'Neal's knee looked fine in extended play. This was the best of the rumored deals. Toronto primarily gets the expiring contract of Shawn Marion, whose reward for Thursday's winning basket was ..."
January 19
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
Heat President Pat Riley, in his first public comments about a potential trade for Toronto's Jermaine O'Neal, cautioned that the deal is not imminent. While not denying interest in O'Neal, Riley said in a team statement released Sunday that reports about the potential trade were premature. "It's typical this time of the year in the NBA that people put the cart before the horse," Riley said. "Whoever is saying that is putting the cart before the horse." The Heat is considering sending forward Shawn Marion and guard Marcus Banks to the Raptors for O'Neal. But Riley is concerned about O'Neal's immediate availability after he recently missed nine games with a sore knee. O'Neal, 30, played 17 ..."
January 18
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"
The Heat is discussing a trade that would send Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks to Toronto for forward/center Jermaine O'Neal but the deal is on hold as the Heat continues to monitor O'Neal's health. Toronto President Bryan Colangelo would like to complete the deal soon. However, it may not happen until closer to the Feb. 19 trade deadline due to Heat president Pat Riley's concerns about O'Neal's immediate readiness with the Heat in contention for a playoff berth. O'Neal recently returned after a nine-game absence due to a knee injury. O'Neal, though injured often during his 13-year career, would fill the Heat's glaring need for a low-post scorer. With $45 million due over the next two ..."