Heat owner Micky Arison, Miami native Sylvia Fowles elected to Basketball Hall of Fame

Miami Herald

05-04-2025

Miami Heat longtime owner Micky Arison is a Basketball Hall of Famer.
Arison has been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class in his first year as a finalist. Arison was named a finalist by the Contributors Committee.
The entire 2025 class was unveiled Saturday afternoon in San Antonio, the site of this year's men's NCAA Final Four. It's a class that also includes Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles, Danny Crawford, Billy Donovan and the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's team.
Former Heat players Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James were members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's team (known as The Redeem Team) that won gold and now enters the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Fowles, a WNBA legend, also has Miami ties. The Miami native enters the Hall of Fame after playing her high school basketball at Miami Edison High and Gulliver Prep and then becoming an eight-time WNBA All-Star and two-time WNBA champion.
Enshrinement weekend is Sept. 5-6 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, and the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In Arison's 29 years at the helm of the franchise, the Heat has won three NBA championships (2006, 2012, 2013). The Heat has also made seven NBA Finals appearances, made 10 Eastern Conference Finals appearances, won 16 division titles and advanced to the playoffs 23 times.
Since Arison's first full season operating the team, the Heat entered this season with a 1,316-995 (.569) record — the best in the Eastern Conference and second-best in the NBA.
Among Arison's top accomplishments as Heat owner was helping to bring Pat Riley to the organization prior to the 1995-96 season. Riley spent 11 seasons as the Heat's head coach and has served as the team president since he arrived, becoming one of the most successful figures in South Florida sports.
Under Arison's leadership, the Heat earned the NBA's 2021 Sales & Marketing Team of the Year award. In November 2020, Arison was named to the board of the NBA's Social Justice Coalition that focuses on action and change around voting access and criminal justice reform at the national, state and local levels. In 2018, the Heat captured the NBA's inaugural Inclusion Leadership Award for the franchise's commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Arison served a three-year term as the Chairman of the NBA Board of Governors beginning in October 2005 and his family has been involved with the organization since his father Ted Arison brought the franchise to the NBA in 1988. Arison's son, Nick Arison, has served as the Heat's Chief Executive Officer since July 2011.
The Arison family has supported a variety of arts-related and community service organizations around South Florida. Organizations supported by the Arison family include World Central Kitchen, Wounded Warriors, ICA Miami, Miami Children's Museum, Jackson Memorial Foundation, Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Project Medishare for Haiti, Direct Relief, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Miami, United Way of Miami Dade, Chapman Partnership, Lotus House, Overtown Youth Center, Feeding South Florida, among others.
Away from basketball, Arison has helped lead Carnival Corporation for more than three decades. He's currently the chairman of Carnival Corporation & plc.
Arison will become the 11th person with Heat ties to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining Billy Cunningham (1986), Bob McAdoo (2000), Riley (2008), Gary Payton (2013), Alonzo Mourning (2014), Shaquille O'Neal (2016), Ray Allen (2018), Bosh (2021), Tim Hardaway (2022) and Wade (2023).