South Florida remains the hub the sports world is turning to.
It’s not just basketball and hockey teams, who play in the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals respectively. It’s another big star, this time GOAT soccer Lionel Messi, who’s taking his talents to South Beach.
In both basketball and hockey, teams from the Miami area and beyond have been pushing far above their weight. Troubles are the rule rather than the exception, Cinderella runs after midnight, and in general no team with (1) next to their name wants to play anyone from South Florida these days.
Here’s a quick look at the unlikely extent of Florida’s dominance.
After his departure from Paris Saint-Germain, Messi is heading to MLS. There have been rumors of the 2022 World Cup winner returning to Barcelona or moving to Saudi club Al-Hilal. Instead, he will play for David Beckham’s club.
He will join the likes of other global stars like Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney and more to play in the MLS.
BREAKING: Lionel Messi has said he will play for Inter Miami, he told Sport and Mundo Deportivo. pic.twitter.com/G6j0yNRaMr
– ESPN (espn) June 7, 2023
Men’s NCAA Tournament: Miami v Florida Atlantic
The Miami Hurricanes and Florida Atlantic Owls were the fifth and ninth seeds, respectively, as they went to the NCAA Tournament. They certainly didn’t play like it. Miami eliminated the 4-seed Indiana Hoosiers, the 1-seed Houston Cougars, and the 2-seed Texas Longhorns to make their first Final Four in tournament history. Meanwhile, the Owls defeated the 8-seed Memphis Tigers, stopped the 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson Knights and defeated the 4-seed Tennessee Volunteers and 3-seed Kansas State Wildcats, becoming the second-ranked 9 ever to reach the Final Four. While both lost in the Final Four, FAU came agonizingly close to upsetting 5-ranked San Diego State and continuing their improbable run.
NCAA Women’s Championship: Miami
Another great run for the Miami Hurricanes. Miami beat 8th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls, 1-ranked Indiana Hoosiers, and 4-ranked Villanova Wildcats, losing only to the eventual champion LSU Tigers in the Elite Eight.
It’s not a team, but Koepka is a West Palm Beach native. He has not won a major championship since 2019 and is ranked 44th at the 2023 PGA Championship, which he then won by two strokes.
The Boston Bruins had one of the greatest regular seasons in NHL history, scoring wins (65) and points (135) en route to a first-round matchup against the Florida Panthers, who had 42 wins and just 92 points — respectable, to be sure, But nowhere near history. When the Bruins went 3-1 in the series, it looked like things were over for the Panthers, but they bounced back, winning three straight games and stunning the Bruins. They then defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games and swept the Carolina Hurricanes to make their second Stanley Cup Final appearance.
How unlikely was their run? On March 18, the Panthers were 100-1 to win the Stanley Cup, their longest odds during the regular season, according to Caesars Sportsbook. The Panthers then finished with the fewest regular season points (92) of any team to make the playoffs. Then there were the confrontations Florida faced to get to this point. In Boston (1), Carolina (2) and Toronto (4), the Panthers have faced three of the top four teams in the NHL in points.
Although Miami’s playoff round started with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks in play-by, the Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls to advance to the next round against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks… whom they promptly dispatched in five games, including 56 points by Jimmy Butler in the fourth match. They beat the New York Knicks in six games to face the Boston Celtics. Miami built a 3-0 series lead before Boston evened the series in dramatic fashion. No problem. Then the Heat set the Celtics on fire in Game 7.
The Heat track is similar to that of the Panthers. The Heat beat the Bucks and Celtics, who had the best records in the NBA this season. The Heat is the fifth team in NBA history to defeat the top two teams in winning percentage before the Finals, joining the 2010 Celtics, 2002 Los Angeles Lakers, 1995 Houston Rockets and 1977 Portland Trail Blazers.
This is the tenth time that NHL and NBA teams from the same metro area have reached the NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Final in the same season and the first since 2016. In none of the previous nine instances have the two teams not won the title.
Perhaps South Florida’s exciting spring will change that.