sport news Miami Heat, the Panthers and the Rays: Florida is the new home of US sport trends now
Not since Boston in 2019 and Los Angeles in 2020 has the focus and attention of the sports world been so concentrated on one area of America as Florida in 2023.
By the summer of 2019, the Boston Red Sox were the reigning World Series champions, the New England Patriots were Super Bowl champions, and the Boston Bruins had reached the Stanley Cup Finals.
The following year belonged to LA - as the Dodgers snapped a 32-year championship drought and the Lakers had captured an NBA title in the bubble.
Now, Florida has the chance to take that mantle for this year - with the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. They're looking to become the first teams from the same city to win both those titles in sports history.
Earlier this year, the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton reached college basketball's Final Four for the first time in their schools' histories. In the major leagues, the Tampa Bay Rays are the hottest team in baseball and the Miami Marlins are fighting for a wild card spot. In racing, Formula One just completed a second successful Miami Grand Prix.
Patrick Mahomes was among the stars at the Miami Grand Prix alongside his wife Brittany
Aleksander Barkov has Florida Panthers fans on the verge of their first Stanley Cup title
Meanwhile, Jimmy Butler has fans believing in an eight-seed Heat team in the NBA Finals
Additionally, this past NFL season was also the first time since 1999 that all three Florida-based teams (the Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Dolphins) made the playoffs in the same season. In the college game, 2023 marks a year of transition and change for one of Florida's most dominant sports historically.
Florida's takeover of the world of American sports has combined underdogs with favorites, upstarts with legends, and sprinkled all those stories with enough magic dust to capture the nation's attention.
Now, with the NBA Finals underway and the Stanley Cup Finals starting Saturday, Mail Sport looks at what has made this year so particularly bright for the sports teams of the Sunshine State.
NBA
The Miami Heat have made the NBA Finals on a wave of grit, determination, and role players hitting their marks at the right time in a combination that may never be seen again in the league's history.
They're only the second team to make the finals as an eight-seed out of the East in NBA history and the first since the 1999 New York Knicks.
Miami got here in spite of finishing the regular season with the worst average points per game mark of the entire league at 109.5.
Their road to the finals was jagged and mountainous - requiring endurance to overcome the two best teams in the Eastern Conference in Milwaukee and Boston.
They also showed their scrappiness in the play-in tournament against Atlanta and Chicago and their second round series against the Knicks.
Sure, the Heat's usual suspects of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo have played the roles demanded out of their combined eight All-Star appearances. But this is truly a story about how the rest of the team has come together to succeed.
Injuries early in the playoffs to Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo have seen star performances come out of the likes of Caleb Martin and Gabe Vincent - two third-season role players performing at their playoff best.
All-Star Jimmy Butler has commanded the most attention during this series
But role players like Caleb Martin (L) and Gabe Vincent (R) are really why Miami is here
Martin averaged 4.5 points a game in the playoffs last year, but now averages 14.1 points in this postseason run. His performances in Games 2, 6, and 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals were highlight-reel worthy.
The same can be said for Vincent, whose 22 points in Game 5 of the first round helped eliminate the Bucks earlier than many expected. His 29-point outburst in Game 3 of the conference finals was equally noteworthy.
Top notch games have also been had from the likes of Max Strus and Duncan Robinson as Miami looks to win its first title since the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh era in 2013.
But they'll have to get past the Western Conference's top team, the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic should prove to be a problem and their role players like Bruce Brown, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Aaron Gordon have been equally phenomenal.
NHL
A Floridian hockey team has made the Stanley Cup Finals for four years in a row - with the Tampa Bay Lightning winning two of three appearances. Now, it's the Panthers turn.
Yet, they should not have even made the playoffs - let alone the final. If the Pittsburgh Penguins didn't lose to Chicago and Columbus - two of the worst teams in the league - in their last two games of the season, they would have gone to the playoffs over Florida.
Florida should have lost to the Boston Bruins - the best regular season team in league history. But Bruins coach Jim Montgomery abandoned the goalie rotation that served him well this year and watched as Boston ruined series-clinching chances in Game 5 and Game 7.
They should have lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs - one of the most well-crafted offensive units in the league. But Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander combined to score just three goals in five games after they totaled 110 goals together in the regular season.
Matthew Tkachuk has been leading the Florida Panthers throughout these playoffs
If they win, these Panthers will become the second eight-seed to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup
The Panthers should have lost to the Carolina Hurricanes - one of the top defensive teams in the league. But a regular season injury to Andrei Svechnikov and playoff injuries to Ondrej Kase, Stefan Noesen, and Max Pacioretty hampered their offensive output and the 'Canes got swept out of the playoffs - losing each game by one goal.
It's perhaps too easy to say that on paper, the Panthers don't deserve to be here. But they've shown their tenacity and have ridden a hot goaltending performance from Sergei Bobrovsky all the way to the cup final for the second time in their history.
Thanks to Bobrovsky and amazing outings from Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and Carter Verhaeghe, the Panthers could become the second eight-seed to win the Stanley Cup - joining the 2012 Los Angeles Kings.
But much like their NBA counterparts, the Panthers will also need to beat the best from the West in the Vegas Golden Knights. They too have a great goaltender in Adin Hill and plenty of scoring options from Jack Eichel to William Karlsson to former Panther Jonathan Marchessault to keep Florida busy.
College Basketball
Since 2000, only four states have had multiple schools in the Final Four: Kentucky (Louisville and Kentucky in 2012), Texas (Baylor and Houston in 2021), North Carolina (Duke and UNC in 2022) and now, Florida (Miami and Florida Atlantic in 2023).
While the first six schools all had great basketball traditions, the same could not be said for Florida's two representatives.
The University of Miami has a great sports tradition, but they hadn't found significant success on the basketball court until recently. After falling in the Elite Eight in 2022 to eventual title winners Kansas, head coach Jim Larranaga helped lead his 'Canes all the way to Houston and the 2023 Final Four - their first ever appearance at that stage.
Florida Atlantic University had also never made a Final Four but their sporting success was not so evident.
In 2023, two Florida teams, Miami and Florida Atlantic, made the Final Four for their first times
Coming into 2023, the Owls had never won a game in the NCAA Tournament - and had only appeared once before in March Madness all the way back in 2002.
But this year, head coach Dusty May led FAU to their best regular season ever - winning the Conference USA title and entering the Big Dance as a severely underrated nine seed.
Not only did Florida Atlantic win their first tournament game ever,
