Mike Bibby didn’t play for the Miami Heat for a very long time. He appeared in 22 games with the team during the 2010-11 regular season and 20 more games in the 2011 NBA Playoffs before he joined the New York Knicks the following season, which marked his final season playing in the league.
But while the point guard’s stint in Miami was brief, it was memorable for him. One part of his stint that he still remembers is that he had to pay money to take a Heat jersey home — presumably to keep it for good.
“I had to pay for one of my jerseys to take my jersey home,” Bibby said. “I had to pay for a jersey there. I think they keep all of ’em — I don’t know what they keep ’em for, but it was hard to get some stuff out of there.”
The Heat signed Bibby in March of 2011 and cut guard Carlos Arroyo to make room for him on their roster. Arroyo had been a major part of Erik Spoelstra’s rotation for part of the season, playing in 49 games and logging 42 starts, but he fell out of the rotation before being cut.
Bibby became available for Miami to sign after he and the Washington Wizards came to a buyout agreement. Bibby started the season with the Atlanta Hawks before being traded to Washington. He appeared in just two regular-season games with the Wizards prior to him being released by the team.
Bibby was very solid for the Heat in the regular season after he joined the team, playing a nice role and hitting a whopping 45.5 percent of his 3-pointers.
However, he was not able to provide consistent 3-point shooting and scoring to complement Miami’s trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the 2011 NBA Playoffs. During that time, he averaged only 3.7 points per game while shooting 28.1 percent from the floor and 25.8 percent from 3-point range. He started every playoff game he played in with the Heat.
Bibby and the Heat came up just short of their goal of a championship, as Miami lost to the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki in six games in the NBA Finals.