Former NFL star wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said that he could come off the bench right now for the Miami Heat, a team that reached the NBA Finals a season ago.
“I could come off the bench for the Heat right now,” Ochocinco told Shannon Sharpe on an episode of Nightcap. “Sixth Man of the Year, right now. No games. I’m like that.”
Ochocinco was selected with the No. 36 overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2001 NFL Draft after a college football career that included one season at Oregon State University. He totaled 713 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns in 11 games played with the Beavers during the 2000 season.
Ochocinco’s contributions as a receiver translated into a lot of collective success for the 2000 iteration of the Beavers. They finished the season with a terrific 11-1 record and beat the University of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl by a final score of 41-9.
The wide receiver played for two teams — the Bengals and New England Patriots — across his 11 seasons in the NFL. Ochocinco is best known for his time playing with the Bengals, however, seeing as how he spent 10 of his 11 seasons in the pros with Cincinnati.
During Ochocinco’s 10 seasons in Cincinnati, he was consistently in the conversation for the best wide receiver in the NFL, as he earned six Pro Bowl appearances and multiple All-Pro nods with the Bengals.
Arguably Ochocinco’s best stretch of his NFL career came during a three-season stretch from the 2005 season through the 2007 season. In each of those three seasons, he accumulated 1,350-plus receiving yards, seven-plus receiving touchdowns and 67-plus first downs on catches.
It’s very unlikely that Ochocinco was serious when he said that he could come off the bench on the current iteration of the Heat. After all, the Heat were one of the best teams in the NBA a season ago, and at 45 years old, Ochocinco would be the oldest player in the league right now by a wide margin.
The Heat will begin their 2023-24 regular season versus Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons on Oct. 25.