@miamiheat/Twitter Miami Heat president Pat Riley hugs the team's newest All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry.
Despite the NBA’s ongoing investigation into the sign-and-trade deal that brought Kyle Lowry to Miami, Heat president Pat Riley confidently rolled out the red carpet for the six-time All-Star’s arrival in South Beach.
On August 13, the Heat’s official Twitter account premiered a welcome video featuring Riley, aka The Godfather, giving Lowry a personal tour of the FTX Arena.
The latest Heat news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Heat newsletter here!
Lowry’s arrival video quickly went viral, as it features the kind of welcome most people can only dream about. The 35-year-old is seen arriving in Miami on a private jet before touring his new home court arena which is already adorned with posters of Lowry in a Heat uniform that read “Welcome Lowry Family.”
Get excited #HEATTwitter! Your point guard @Klow7 has arrived.
Clearly, not every player gets this kind of “wow” welcome, and Lowry knows it. The veteran point guard can be heard saying, “I’m really excited for the opportunity” and ready to get to work:
I’m excited. I’m really excited, you know.. I’m not like a crazy like fiery yelling type of guy. You know, I’m very simple on the court… I just want to go out there and be able to do my job at a high level. You know, to try to take this organization back to a level where it once was and get back to the finals where they were a couple of years ago and win some championships.
Chances are ‘Slim to None’ the Heat’s Sign-and-Trade for Lowry Gets Voided
GettyThe NBA is investigating the Miami Heat for possible tampering violations concerning Kyle Lowry’s (L) sign-and-trade deal with the Toronto Raptors.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne broke the news on August 7 that the Heat were under investigation for possible tampering violations due to how quickly the Heat secured Lowry after the free agency period officially started at 6 p.m. ET on August 2.
The sign-and-trade deal that sent Goran Dragic and Precious Achiuwa to Toronto in exchange for the six-time All-Star took just 38 minutes. While ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported that the Heat were likely reported to the league by an opposing team, on August 10, NBA analyst Marc Stein revealed a major update on the investigation.
According to Stein, the chances that the NBA unwinds Lowry’s sign-and-trade is “slim to none,” which is obviously fantastic news for Miami’s front office.
“‘Unwinding one of these deals, to use the insider term for dismantling an NBA transaction, is probably the only measure that the league could take to truly dissuade such overt rule-breaking,” but Stein also notes that no one he’s spoken to over the past few days expects the “sign-and-trade to be rescinded” after it was “publicly announced as complete.”
Miami Heat’s 2021-22 NBA Roster So Far
Imagine if we re-sign Victor Oladipo 👀
While the Heat said goodbye to Kendrick Nunn, Andre Iguodala, Trevor Ariza, Nemanja Bjelica, the team also lost Dragic and Precious Achiuwa in the deal that brought Lowry to Miami.
In addition to adding one of the best point guards in the entire league, the following 13 players are locked in for the Heat’s 2021-22 NBA season:
Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, P.J. Tucker, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, KZ Okapala, Dewayne Dedmon, Markieff Morris, Victor Oladipo, Udonis Haslem, and Omer Yurtseven.
READ NEXT: Nets Forward Throws Shade at Heat, Lakers After Free Agency Moves