2003–04 Miami Heat season

The 2003–04 Miami Heat season is the 16th season of the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The season saw the team draft future All-Star and 3-time NBA Champion Dwyane Wade with the fifth overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, while acquiring forward Lamar Odom from the Los Angeles Clippers. Before the season began, head coach Pat Riley resigned, but he would later return midway in the 2005–06 season and help guide the Heat to their first ever NBA championship. Behind Wade's stellar rookie season, and despite winning only 42 games, the Heat entered the playoffs as the Number 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. The first round series pitted the Heat against the defunct New Orleans Hornets, their first meeting since 2001. At that time, the Hornets were in Charlotte and they swept the Heat in three straight games. The Heat would go on to defeat New Orleans in seven games.

Contents

• Key dates
• Free agency
• October
• November
• December
• January
• February
• March
• April
• East First Round
• East Conference Semifinals
• References

They advanced to Conference Semifinals for the first time since 2000. However, they went no further as they fell to the top-seeded Indiana Pacers in six games. Following the season, Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant were all traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, and John Wallace retired.