The Heat is leaving the country for a training camp for the third time. The team announced that the train will be held in the Bahamas for the third time in the franchise’s 35-year history.
It is set up on Miami’s New Providence Island at Baha Mar, a Grand Hyatt-operated property that is one of the largest event venues in the Caribbean. According to the Heat, “the 200,000-square-foot indoor and outdoor convention facility features state-of-the-art courts for players, premium seating experiences for spectators, and leading-edge technology for film and broadcast training.”
Baha Mar said the Heat’s training camp is a multi-year deal. The Miami Heat previously held training camp in the Bahamas prior to the 2013-2014 season (the final season of Big 3 era) and again prior to the 2016-17 season. Both camps were held at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort.
The 2013-2014 season ended with a loss to the Spurs in the NBA Finals, a month before LeBron James left the Heat to sign with Cleveland. The 2016-2017 team missed the playoffs and finished 41-41 after winning 30 of their final 41 games.
Following a media day at FTX Arena on Monday, September 26, the Heat will travel to Nassau and hold two practices a day beginning September 27. Practices will be closed except for the final on October 1st, which will be attended by invited guests and children of the Bahamas Youth Basketball Association.
The Miami Heat will return to South Florida later that Saturday, Oct. 1, for an open scrimmage for cancer research at FTX Arena on Monday, Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m., before opening the six-game preseason schedule on Tuesday. Oct. 4 against Minnesota at FTX Arena.
In recent years, the Heat have held training camps at FTX Arena (including last season) or in the Beach of West Palm or Boca Raton. Before their first season of the Big 3 era (2010-2011), the Miami Heat held training camp in Eglin Air Force Base in the Beach of Fort Walton. The training camp will mark at least the second trip to the Bahamas in 2022 for half the Heat’s roster.
Last April, before the playoffs began, several players took a vacation to the Bahamas organized by Kyle Lowry.
“Kyle Lowry met with me and told me what he wanted to do with the team,” Erik Spoelstra told Yahoo last spring. “He figured out all the logistics and I gave him my blessing. There are only a few players like Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Udonis Haslem that have played in this franchise that I know could have created something like this. It shows how special Kyle is and how much we respect him as a person and a player.”
This time the players go to work in the Bahamas. The Heat signed only one new player to a standard contract: draft pick Nikola Jovic. P.J. Tucker (Philadelphia) and Markieff Morris (Brooklyn) left this offseason. The Heat opens their regular season schedule against the visiting Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, October 19th.
Meta: The Miami Heat is holding a training camp for the third time in the Bahamas, in the franchise’s 35-year history.