MIAMI — The fear factor is legitimate. To get something, you have to give something.

Whether the Miami Heat are able to land Giannis Antetokounmpo remains a great unknown at the moment, amid renewed concern that Brad Stevens and the Boston Celtics again will get in the way.

But a lesson taken from the exercise from a Heat perspective is that something ventured mostly leads to something gained — at least during the Pat Riley regime.

Granted, it wasn’t always that way pre-Riley. Not when Steve Smith was sacrificed for Kevin Willis, or Rony Seikaly was cast aside for Billy Owens.

And it’s not as if there weren’t trepidations with some of the bigger moves early during Riley’s oversight, including Riley, after dealing for a hobbled Tim Hardaway in 1996, wondering the night of that trade whether he even would have an ambulatory point guard, with Bimbo Coles sent out in that deal.

But for all the seeming consternation these past few weeks about what could be sent out, the lessons of most every major Riley-regime gambit has been giving up something (or somethings) of quality for something more substantial.

Alonzo Mourning trade

Revisionist history of Riley’s first major Heat move, one that came within weeks of his 1995 South Florida arrival, was that Alonzo Mourning was heisted from the Charlotte Hornets.

The reality is that sent out to Charlotte was Glen Rice, who would go on to become a three-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA selection and an NBA champion in 2000 with the Los Angeles Lakers. Also sent out in that deal with a first-round pick that turned into long-time NBA guard Tony Delk.

Rice went on to score 4,000 more career points than Mourning (whose career was limited by health and injury issues).

Jamal Mashburn trade

Yes, the Heat arguably won the 1997 deal with the Mavericks by adding a key cog for those playoff showdowns against the New York Knicks.

But sent out the other way was Kurt Thomas, who went on to have a productive 18-season career, with deep playoff runs with the Knicks and San Antonio Spurs.

Mashburn, by contrast, played 12 seasons, making All-Star once and All-NBA once.

Eddie Jones/Anthony Mason trade

In the wake of the kidney illness that would sideline Mourning, the Heat got aggressive with a 2000 trade with the Hornets for Eddie Jones and Anthony Mason.

The cost was Mashburn and P.J. Brown, a duo who would come back to burn the Heat the ensuing postseason.

Still, Mason was an All-Star starter that season and Jones proved to be needed capital for a 2005 trade that would fuel the Heat’s first championship season.

Shaquille O’Neal trade

Yes, O’Neal helped deliver the Heat’s first championship in 2006 during his three-plus seasons with the Heat.

Still, consternation was considerable with this 2004 deal, with the Heat sending out Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a first-round pick that turned into Jordan Farmar.

Odom wound up playing 14 seasons, twice winning championships with the Lakers.

Butler also played 14 seasons, twice being named an All-Star.

Grant, well into his career by the time of the Shaq trade, would play only two more seasons.

Farmar carved out a 10-year career, winning championships with the Lakers in 2009 and ’10.

Goran Dragic trade

While this 2015 trade also sent out Heat two-time champion guard Norris Cole, the key were the two first-round picks sent to the Suns for Dragic.

The first of the two outgoing first-rounders wound up being turned into Mikal Bridges, who these past two months has been on display during the Knicks dramatic playoff run.

The other of those first rounders turned into Tre Mann, who is in the midst of a serviceable five-season career now with the Charlotte Hornets, with Dragic out of the league since 2023.

Kyle Lowry trade

Forgotten amid the ugly ending with Lowry was how the Heat advanced within a game of the NBA Finals the season after Lowry’s 2021 acquisition from the Toronto Raptors and then the NBA Finals the following season.

The cost of that deal, beyond Dragic’s contract, was 2020 first-round pick Precious Achiuwa, who has recorded notable NBA statistics since. Lowry, by contrast, has appeared in 49 total games the past two seasons.

Jimmy Butler trade

The trade that brought in Butler in 2019 (not the one that sent him out in 2025), came at the cost of a first-round pick that the Thunder last year turned into No. 15 selection Thomas Sorber, with the book still out on the Georgetown big man who was sidelined all of this past season.

Bottom line

Numerous All-Star teams could be crafted from the players Riley has dealt from the Heat, with several going on to secure championship rings (something that the aforementioned only have won with the Heat once by Mourning, once by O’Neal).

But to get something, you have to give something.

Which is where the Heat stand at the moment, waiting on the Bucks, waiting on Giannis.

IN THE LANE

WORTH NOTING: For those looking for something better from Nikola Jovic going forward, it could be worth keeping eyeballs on World Cup qualifying this summer, with the Heat forward confirming this past week plans to play for Serbia. That is expected to have him alongside Nikola Jokic for games in that summer window. Jovic, drafted at No. 27 by the Heat in 2022, has been with the Serbian national team since 2021. Jovic’s last action with his national team was last Fall in EuroBasket, having also been part of Serbia’s run to Olympic bronze in Paris in 2024. Serbia’s July window of games are July 2 against Switzerland and July 6 against Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is expected to have Jusuf Nurkić and Luka Garza available. Serbia is 2-2 in World Cup qualifying, with Turkey leading that group at 4-0.

MORE CUP: Speaking of the 2027 World Cup, Qatar, which is hosting the event, appears poised to bolster its roster by signing former Heat guard Kendrick Nunn, now a star in Greece, as a naturalized addition for that competition. Nunn, who has had a breakout career in Europe, previously was chased by Turkey as a naturalized addition to its national team. Nunn’s deal for Qatar has been reported to be for as long as five years worth of appearances. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is scheduled to coach Team USA at the World Cup in Qatar in advance of his role leading USA Basketball at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Nunn, 30, averaged 18.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.7 rebounds in highly competitive EuroLeague play this past season.

ALTERNATE MEANS: Included in the Heat’s biography of forward Keshad Johnson is a line that reads, “Would like to become an actor when his playing career is over.” Apparently, the wait might not be that long. The second-year forward this past week posted on his Instagram several videos of his work in a television pilot produced in South Florida. “I’m finally getting my first crack at it, and hopefully that’s another avenue I can take, as well as with basketball,” Johnson said during his appearance at the Heat’s youth camp at Slam Miami. There was little shyness when it came to delivering his lines. “I’m good,” Johnson said with a smile. “But it’s always room for growth. And I’m just trying to plant a foundation and grow bigger.”

ERA END: When the Heat played the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Finals, it proved to be a Heat reunion of sorts, with Scott Hastings, a center on the 1988-89 inaugural Heat, a commentator for the Nuggets. Now an era has ended in Denver, with Hastings let go this past week after 22 seasons as a team broadcaster. Hastings will continue in Denver as a sport-talk co-host. During those 2023 Finals, Hastings, now 66, reminisced of his Heat tenure, “There were a whole bunch of slugs that were second-fiddle and third-fiddle guys in other places that came together.” During that interview, Hastings said he still retained his 1988-89 Heat jersey, from a team that finished 15-67.

NUMBER

2. Teams that have recovered three times from double-digit deficits to win games during an NBA Finals since the start of the NBA’s play-by-play era (when logging began in 1996-97), with the New York Knicks having done it in these NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs and the Heat having done it in the 2006 NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.