Inside The Heat

Coach Jim Larranaga Helped Make Basketball Cool In Miami

Shandel Richardson

Dec 3, 2024; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes head coach Jim Larranaga looks on after the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Watsco Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Dec 3, 2024; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes head coach Jim Larranaga looks on after the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Watsco Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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Basketball was always a tough sell in South Florida.

Time was, this was only football country. The Dolphins and Don Shula. The swagger of the 1980s Hurricanes. Even high school football bested the hardwood.

Things began to change with the arrival of Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal. The Heat won an NBA title in 2006. Then LeBron James and Chris Bosh relocated in 2010. Suddenly, basketball was cool in The 305.

And Miami Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga played a role in that, too. On Thursday, it was reported Larranaga plans to step down immediately after 14-plus seasons in charge. The move comes less than two years after leading the Hurricanes to their first Final Four.

But Larranaga's biggest impact came during the 2012-13 season. It was the first time the Hurricanes were relevant in program history. That year, they blew out No. 1 Duke. They later beat up on North Carolina in Coral Gables, Fla., with Wade and James sitting courtside.

No other coach in Hurricanes history could attract that type of star power to a college basketball game. Larranaga did.

“I literally just found out about this walking over here,” Heat Erik Spoelstra said. “I’m shocked still about it.”

“Coach Larranaga is a friend of mine. I think so highly of him, the way that he’s able to build a program that has a sense of community and we all rallied around the basketball program. I live in Coral Gables, so I’ve been part of this movement.”

HEAT ADD PLAYER FROM G LEAGUE

The Heat are signing G-League standout Isaiah Stevens to a two-way NBA contract.

Stevens went undrafted this past summer out of Colorado State, where he played for five seasons and helped lead the team in 2022 to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2013.

He originally joined the Heat in July on an Exhibit 10 contract, which is a one-year, non-guaranteed contract, before being waived on Oct. 19 after the preseason. Nine days later, the team would sign him to the G-League affiliate Sioux Falls Skyforce, where he has averaged 13 points and 11 assists this season.

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Miami Heat On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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Shandel Richardson
SHANDEL RICHARDSON

Shandel has covered the NBA since 2010, with previous stops at The Athletic and South Florida Sun-Sentinel.  He has covered six NBA Finals, one Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament. He has also been a beat writer for the Miami Hurricanes and contributed on every major beat in South Florida since 2003, including the Miami Dolphins and Miami Marlins. He can also be read in the Sportsbook Review for gambling coverage from around the NBA. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Shandel attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He's also worked for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Kansas City Star.  TWITTER: @ShandelRich EMAIL: shandelrich@gmail.com You can subscribe to our YouTube channel here Follow all of our Miami Heat coverage on Facebook here