On this day in 2005, a five team trade involving the Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics sent Antoine Walker and Jason Williams to the Heat, leading the team to their first championship later that same season.
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Trades in the NBA are becoming more and more common every single season and offseason.
However, multi-team deals are starting to become rare and if a deal is done with various teams, it usually does not eclipse three or four teams.
On this day in 2005 though, the largest trade in NBA history was completed, as five teams and a total of 13 different players were involved, topping the previous league-high for a trade of 12 players. What many tend to forget about what is now the second-largest trade in NBA history is that this one involved Patrick Ewing going to the Seattle SuperSonics in 2000.
The Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz came together in 2005 to make the largest trade in league history, a deal that notably sent Antoine Walker and Jason Williams to the Heat.
In total, Walker was acquired by Miami from Boston and Williams was acquired along with James Posey and Andre Emmett from the Grizzlies. The Heat also received the draft rights to Roberto Duenas from the Hornets, trading Eddie Jones to the Grizzlies, Rasual Butler to the Hornets, and then a 2006 second-round pick, a conditional second-round pick, Qyntel Woods and the draft rights to Albert Miralles to the Celtics.
Got all that? Good, because there is more to this deal.
Memphis then sent Greg Ostertag to Utah and Utah sent Curtis Borchardt to the Celtics, Raul Lopez to the Grizzlies and then Kirk Snyder to the Hornets.
The Heat were the obvious winners from this trade not only because they ended up with three-time All-Star Antoine Walker, but because they also ended up with Jason Williams a.k.a. “White Chocolate.”
These two ended up playing key roles for the Heat during the 2005-06 season alongside Hall-of-Famers Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton and future Hall-of-Famer Dwyane Wade.
Finishing with a 59-23 record, the best record in the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls in the first-round of the playoffs, the New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and then they defeated the Chauncey Billups and the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, advancing to their first ever NBA Finals.
In the 2006 NBA Finals, Miami defeated Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in six games to claim the franchise’s first NBA title.
Since then, the Heat have won two more titles courtesy of the infamous “Big 3” with All-Stars LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade.
This five-team, thirteen-player trade will forever go down as a signature moment in Miami Heat history simply because of the fact that it helped them win their first championship.
