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Winderman: Twelve months later, the Year of Rozier like no other for Heat
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- Winderman: Twelve months later, the Year of Rozier like no other for Heat
MIAMI — The Miami Heat's first road trip of the season stands as a unique reminder of what was and what still must be.
First there was Friday's anniversary of the Heat's first road trip a year ago, when on Oct. 23, 2025 the Heat's Orlando hotel was swarmed by FBI agents and Terry Rozier was arrested as part of a gambling investigation .
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It was one of the most shocking moments of the Heat's 39 seasons, with Rozier bonding out later that day, utilizing his Southwest Ranches home as collateral for the $6 million bond.
And now, one year later, the Heat's first trip of the season to, of all places, Charlotte, against the team the Heat still owe a first-round pick because of their January 2024 trade with the Hornets for Rozier.
By now, the Heat angle and repercussions of that trade have been well-chronicled:
— The NBA and Hornets never fully informed the Heat to the degree of investigation into Rozier's alleged gambling involvement prior to the Rozier trade.
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— The NBA tried to make amends by awarding the Heat a Hornets 2025 second-round pick , the pick utilized to help land Louisville guard Ryan Conwell.
— But there was no relief from the first-round pick still due Charlotte, one that is Top-14 protected in June or unprotected in 2028, conditions that preclude the Heat from trading their first-round pick in 2027, '28 or '29.
For now, Rozier is due for trial on Feb. 8 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, before Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall, on charges of sports bribery, honest-services wire fraud conspiracy, and related federal charges linked to an alleged sports-betting and game-fixing scheme from a March 2023 game while still with the Hornets.
Among the many twists and turns was a letter from Rozier's counsel that, according to The Athletic this past week, claimed the "NBA recently produced objective medical records which demonstrate conclusively that Mr. Rozier was hurt" when it came to that 2023 game he left early, with bettors cashing on "under" wagers on his statistics.
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For its part, while limiting the Heat's recourse from the Hornets trade, the NBA has moved forward with regulations it believes can better protect the league from future abuses. The agreements between the league and its gambling partners, according to ESPN, include:
– Banning wagers on "under" bets on individual players who average or are expected to play fewer than 12 minutes per game.
— Banning parlay bets that combine multiple "under" statistical props for the same player (effectively a Rozier Rule).
— Banning wagers on specific opening events or single-play micro-outcomes, including who wins the opening tip, who scores the first basket, or who records the first 3-pointer, block, or assist.
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— Bans on proposition bets on players on 10-day or two-way contracts.
A year later, as the Heat prepared to hit the road for the first time this season, the memories of that moment in their Orlando hotel a year ago — as they were preparing to fly to Memphis after a loss to the Magic — remain uniquely vivid.
"The FBI pulled up, I heard the hotel was crowded with cops. I think it was, I mean, in my opinion, a little bit much," guard Davion Mitchell said of that scene a year ago. "It was a little bit much, that's what I think about it."
Before the Heat even took flight that day, an FBI media conference was already being televised across the networks, with the operation almost giddily coined by the government as "Operation Nothing But Nets."
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A year later, the Heat have reset. Rozier's contract expired at the end of last season, even as the fight over the payment of the salary continues. And now a trial is scheduled to begin in February.
Quite the calendar year.
— The promise of Conwell added as a degree of compensation.
— The outgoing first-round pick to the Hornets still to come due.
— And Rozier out of the game, his NBA presence reduced to his post on X on Wednesday night during the Heat's season opener about Mitchell this season taking Rozier's former number and similar distinctive padding.
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"Son son got my whole swag on the court lmao thought the # was enough," Rozier posted.
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And, yes, Mitchell said he noticed the post.
The Year of Rozier has been like no other in the Heat's 39 seasons.
With the impact still ongoing.
IN THE LANE
NOT YET:Among the subplots of the Heat's trade with the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo were extensions that otherwise would have had to be addressed. With Tyler Herro, the waiting game remains ongoing, eligible to be extended by the Bucks any time before next summer's free agency. But on the eve of this season, the window closed for an extension for Jaime Jaquez Jr. off his Heat rookie-scale deal. So it's $5.9 million for this season for Jaquez and then restricted free agency in July. In the end, of the 30 2023 first-round picks, just seven reached deals for extensions by the Oct. 19 deadline: San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama (No. 1), Charlotte's Brandon Miller (No. 2), Houston's Amen Thompson (No. 4), Detroit's Ausar Thompson (No. 5), Oklahoma City's Cason Wallace (No. 10), Utah's Keyonte George (No. 16) and Golden State's Brandin Podziemski (No. 19). Jaquez went No. 18 in that draft, ultimately caught up in the Bucks' desire for salary-cap flexibility next summer.
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NO FRONTRUNNER:Don't call Herro a frontrunner when it comes to the Milwaukee Brewers making it to the World Series, not with Herro sporting a Brewers tattoo at his waist that was visible during his Heat tenure. "It's been amazing," Herro said, according to Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel , of the postseason ride of his hometown team. "I was obviously living in Miami last year. I came up for Game 2 of the NLCS, so I was in American Field — I still call it Miller Park — but yeah, I was there last year. We ended up getting swept. But just to see how the team came back, you can really tell when a group is like, connected, and that group over there is really connected. You can tell they're playing for each other, they really want this for each other. It's great to see how they're representing the city."
YES, TRAVELING:That step-step-step-step-back 3-pointer by Minnesota's LaMelo Ball on Wednesday night in the second quarter against the Heat? On second thought, yes, traveling – albeit after the fact. Even the social-media of the NBA's refereeing staff acknowledged it was one that got away, posting, "For everyone asking, 'How is this legal?' It's not! He gathers with his right foot on the floor and would be permitted two steps by rule (left-right). He takes four steps after gathering the ball and travels." Actually, maybe as many as six steps. For his part, Ball said on a postgame ESPN interview, "If you watch, I let the ball guide. If I'm letting the ball guide and I ain't touching it, you can take as much steps as you want." Um, no you can't.
NEW REALITY:Thursday's introductory media session in South Dakota for Mario Casamajor as coach of the Heat's G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, showed the Heat's video coordinator from last season already has a keen awareness of the ever-changing face of the business of basketball. A veteran of previous time on G League staffs of the Bulls and Timberwolves, Casamajor noted that many of today's G League players already have been paid handsomely in college, and therefore are fully versed in the professional side of the game. "These guys are coming off NIL deals, so you're dealing with a unique situation with those guys, and our players and the players in this league, they know people. And so if you're not authentic, and you're not yourself, it's very hard to get through," Casamajor said.
NUMBER
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3.NBA teams with a league-high seven international players on their opening-night rosters, with the Heat in that group, along with the Dallas Mavericks and Washington Wizards. For the Heat, that comes despite not having a player from France, which boasted a league-high 17 players on opening-night rosters. The Heat's roster features the NBA's lone opening-night players from Greece (Giannis Antetokounmpo), Italy (Simone Fontecchio), Jamaica (Nick Richards) and Sweden (Pelle Larsson). The Heat's other non-U.S. players are Vlad Goldin (Russia), Nikola Jovic (Serbia) and Andrew Wiggins (Canada). (Regarding Jamaica, while former Heat guard Norman Powell plays internationally for Jamaica, he is U.S.-born.)
