Inside The Heat

Miami Heat Fans Make Absurd Statement About NBA Stars

Ethan J. Skolnick|
Freshmen Aiden Salyars, top, and Brayden Cross strike a pose in the Argo Village prior to the McKendree vs UWF football game at the University of West Florida in Pensacola on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.
Freshmen Aiden Salyars, top, and Brayden Cross strike a pose in the Argo Village prior to the McKendree vs UWF football game at the University of West Florida in Pensacola on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. | Gregg Pachkowski/Pensacola News Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

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Miami Heat

Miami Heat fans get a lot of grief.

Some say they only care when the team has superstars, even if attendance figures suggest otherwise. And of course, they're always mocked for arriving late and leaving early, though they're hardly the only fans in the NBA who do so.

When it comes to how they see themselves, however, Heat fans are not short on confidence. That's evident in a new survey by VegasInsider.com, in which NBA fans were asked if they believed they could score a basket against a professional player.

Consider that the Heat themselves, with a bottom 10 offense, had trouble scoring against professional players last season. Heat fans saw that first hand. And yet, 85.5% of self-identifying Heat fans said they believed they could get at least a bucket against an average pro in a pickup game.

We are assuming the player who is defending them isn't Bam Adebayo.

Can a Heat fan score against Bam?
Nov 20, 2022; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Lamar Stevens (8) shoots over the defense of Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) during the first quarter at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Grizzlies fans, perhaps channeling Ja Morant, were second at 85.4%. And Clippers fans, acting like James Harden (though not in the playoffs), were third at 84.7%.

The least confident?

Fans of the Portland Trail Blazers. Only 54.8% believe they can get a bucket. Surprisingly, always cocky Celtics fans were second-lowest at 56.7%.

There's more. Nearly two-thirds of Miami Heat fans (62%) believe their three-point shot is on par with NBA professionals — with 34% saying they’re almost as good, 16% claiming they’re the same, and 12% rating themselves better than the average pro.


The survey was commissioned by VegasInsider, and was conducted by One8Y between July 7–10, 2025, with a nationally representative sample of 3,156 NBA fans across the U.S.

You can find the data set in full here. 

And you can find Heat fans swishing on the court, apparently.

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Ethan J. Skolnick
ETHAN J. SKOLNICK

Ethan has covered all major sports -- in South Florida and beyond -- since 1996 and is one of the longest-tenured fully credentialed members of the Miami Heat. He has covered, in total, more than 30 NBA Finals, Super Bowls, World Series and Stanley Cup Finals. After working full-time for the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Bleacher Report and several other outlets, he founded the Five Reasons Sports Network in 2019 and began hosting the Five on the Floor podcast as part of that network. The podcast is regularly among the most downloaded one-team focused NBA podcasts in the nation, and the network is the largest independent sports outlet in South Florida, by views, listens and social media reach. He has a B.A. from The Johns Hopkins University and an M.S. from Columbia University. TWITTER: @EthanJSkolnick and @5ReasonsSports EMAIL: fllscribe@gmail.com

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