Wheeling, W. Va. – As the final minutes ticked down inside the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, the Miami Heat were preparing to knock off the Boston Celtics in the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals. When that clock hit zero, the Heat would stop Boston's chance to become the first team in NBA history to erase a 3-0 deficit in the conference finals, winning the game 103-84. With the win, history was made in Wheeling, West Virginia as former Wheeling University Men's Basketball player Haywood Highsmith became the first Wheeling University Student-Athlete to make the championship game for a major professional sports team. 

Highsmith was a key contributor off the bench for the Heat throughout the series, and came through in some of the biggest moments of the game. Across the seven-game Eastern Conference Finals, Highsmith combined to score 17 points off the bench, while grabbing three rebounds and two assists. In Game 5 vs. the Celtics, Highsmith had his best playoff performance of his career when he scored a playoff career-high 15 pts., while picking up two rebounds and one assist. During his entire playoff run this season, Highsmith is averaging 3.2 points per game, and has appeared in 13 games off the bench for the Heat while averaging just under 10 minutes per game. Highsmith's run with the Miami Heat began last season, when he signed a three-year contract, and he has made an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals in each of those two seasons. 

Highsmith's journey to pro basketball began back during the 2014-2015 season, when he signed with the Cardinals just a few weeks before classes began. The Baltimore, Maryland native was playing in an AAU tournament when he ran into former Wheeling University Head Men's Basketball coach Danny Sancomb. In an Alumni Spotlight interview that Highsmith did last summer, he talked about how he thought he could build something in Wheeling and how Sancomb took a chance on him and gave him an opportunity. 

"After we did the little tour of campus, (Sancomb) gave me an offer," said Highsmith. "It wasn't a fully guaranteed offer, it was a partial offer because he was taking a chance on me. From there it was the decision between going to prep school or going to Wheeling and I chose Wheeling because I felt like I could build something there and most of the guys coming in were from the DMV area, so I kind of felt a connection there." 

Once he got on campus, Highsmith took off, going from a kid that was given a chance, to one that seized his opportunity. He led the Cardinals to the MEC Tournament in each of his four seasons in the Red and Black, including helping the team to their first regional tournament run during the 2016-17 season, when they made it all the way to the Regional Championship game before falling to Fairmont State. He ended his four seasons at Wheeling as the third leading scorer in team history with 1,952 career points, while also picking up over 1,000 career rebounds (1,362). Following his graduation from Wheeling in 2018, Highsmith went to play overseas before signing with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2019. He battled through the G League for a few seasons, before joining the Heat during the 2021-22 season. 

The 2023 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets is set to kick-off in Thursday, June 1st at 8:30 PM and you can watch on ABC.