The Miami Heat and Florida Panthers are making South Florida a great place to be for sports fans, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra gave the Cats their due after the team advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 1996 on Wednesday night.
“It's unbelievable,” Spoelstra said, according to the Miami Herald's Anthony Chiang. “That's been one of the great joys of everybody in our locker room is having something to rally around and get our minds off of this. It's been an amazing year for South Florida sports.”
It's been clear that players on both the Heat and Panthers have been feeding off of each other as the two No. 8 seeds continue to defy all expectations on the biggest stage in their respective sports.
The Panthers completed a four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night, defeating the NHL's second-best regular season team after upsetting the best regular season team in history in the Boston Bruins in Round 1.
The Heat took out the Milwaukee Bucks in five games before dispatching the New York Knicks in six. They have an opportunity on Thursday night to silence the Boston Celtics at TD Garden, the same place Florida finished a comeback for the ages with a thrilling overtime win over the Bruins in Game 7 just weeks ago.
If Miami wins either on Thursday night or at all in the seven-game series, it'll be the first time in history that two No. 8 seeds from the same city have advanced to the finals in their respective sports.
The Florida Panthers are Stanley Cup Final bound for the first time since 1996, and Erik Spoelstra's Miami Heat can join them in making history and marching to their first NBA Finals trip since 2020 with a win in Boston.
As the highly-touted coach said, truly an incredible time to be a fan of hockey and basketball in South Florida.
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