“People waiting 3:00 in the morning after we got off” – Mickell Gladness on how surreal it felt playing for the ‘Big 3’ Heat originally appeared on Basketball Network.
During the early 2010s, no team in the Association generated more buzz than the Miami Heat. With the formation of the notorious “Big 3,” Miami was back on the map and the team to watch.
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As LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade, title expectations were placed on their shoulders. When you combined the flashy style of play with the superstar labels and the never-ending news cycle about Bron, D-Wade, and CB, the eyes of the league and fans were pointed in their direction.
Being part of the Miami roster at that time must have been a pressured and wild experience, as Mickell Gladness told us in an exclusive interview with Basketball Network. The former NBA center who spent the majority of the 2011-2012 season with the Heat told us just how it felt being a part of the “Big 3” squad when they were at their peaks.
“It was a movie. From people waiting 3:00 in the morning after we got off when we got came home from road trip or we got to another city just to get autographs and then every now and then I’ll have people have a car waiting for me so it was crazy like it was surreal and it was a moment I will never forget. Just NBA period, but especially the Miami Heat,” Gladness explained the aura around the “Big 3” Heat.
A whole new world
Not being highly touted in high school, going undrafted in the 2008 NBA Draft, and having to grind his way to the league overseas and through the G-League, Gladness wasn’t used to this type of attention and culture. However, Mickell was aware that this was something beyond anything he had seen.
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“My first impression was again, it’s another level. I went from Holland and even the G-League to now, you got Pat Riley as the president, you got Erik Spoelstra, they were serious. Everything was timed, everything was organized. I was even more structured than I was used to,” Mickell explained the culture in Miami.
Playing for Erik Spoelstra, then a rising young head coach, and the notorious Pat Riley wasn’t easy, as they both demanded excellence. However, it could bring out the best in players if they were willing to put in the work and dedicate themselves to the team.
“Heat Culture”
This is why the famed “Heat Culture” mantra was created. From their rigorous training camps, body fat requirements, and high expectations, playing for Miami, especially during the “Big 3” years, was as challenging as it came. However, Gladness took it in stride and used the experience to improve on an individual level to benefit his career.
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“My first training camp, we went to an army base and we trained there like that. You can’t get any more structure than that, so it gave me that seriousness about the game, that kind of attention to detail. It made me really think about how I structure my workouts, I look at getting in shape, how I look at development and getting better as far as my skill level, how I don’t I mean, the efficiency with it, it played a big role in how I looked at the rest of my career,” he concluded on what the Heat expereince thought him about his indivudal growth.
All in all, sharing the locker room with the likes of James, Wade and Bosh, three Hall-of-Fame players, is a riveting experience for any young player, whether on-court or off-court. However, doing it all in Miami with Riley and Spoelstra watching and the whole NBA community fanning out over you must have been a memory that Gladness will remember forever.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.