Younger fans may not realize this, but it wasn’t long ago that the Miami Heat were considered an up-and-coming expansion franchise.

The Heat joined the NBA in the 1988-89 season and competed in the Western Conference for one year before moving to the more appropriate Eastern Conference. It took them six seasons to post their first winning record. Then in 1995, Pat Riley left the New York Knicks to coach the Heat.

That was the first step that changed the franchise.

Shortly after accepting the job, Riley joined Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. With Zo and Timmy, Miami battled Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and Patrick Ewing’s Knicks into the late ’90s, earning respect but never winning a championship.

Then a serious kidney disease destroyed Mourning’s career. Because of this, he missed the entire 2002-03 season and the Heat fell to last place in the league, winning just 25 games.

In June 2003, the Heat Marquettes selected Dwyane Wade with the fifth pick in the draft.

That was the second step that changed the franchise.

Of course you know the rest.

Riley joined the Heat almost 30 years ago and drafted Wade 21 years ago. Together as players, coaches and leaders, they earned the franchise three banners and league-wide respect.

The Heat are no longer the aspiring expansion franchise. Few organizations have had as much success as the Heat in the last 20 years, and certainly none more. And within a week, they will have honored the two individuals who led the Heat from a forgotten team that landed in the wrong conference to an organization with a rich and important history.

On Sunday, the Heat will erect a statue honoring a legend. Take a stroll through the arenas in Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago, and they too have all-timers immortalized in bronze. Like his idol Jordan and fellow Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, D-Wade will be commemorated with a glowing sculpture next to the newly named Dwyane Wade Blvd. forever linked to a franchise and a city. In fact, it is his house and it is his street.

Inside, Heat players and their opponents dribble, dive and sweat on the Pat Riley Court, overlooked by three championship banners and six retired jerseys.

These aren’t the new guys on the block. For several generations of South Floridians, they are the team most associated with victory and stability. They are wise elder statesmen whose success the Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers want to replicate.

Several NBA organizations point to the Heat as a model where victory is expected and everything else takes a backseat.

Seeing what it has become must be shocking and rewarding for so many Heat employees who joined the organization 20 and 30 years ago.

Check out the other teams that joined the league within the same years as the Heat. The Charlotte Hornets, Orlando Magic and Minnesota Timberwolves have had their share of history, but none of those organizations have come close to the success of the Heat.

Ask them how hard it is to become a successful franchise business.

The Heat look less like their expansion contemporaries and more like NBA originals like the Lakers, Celtics and Warriors.

And it all happened in a relatively short moment.

The Arena on Biscayne Blvd. is more than a home for the heat. Now it is a monument to greatness where Riley and Wade will forever set an unimaginably high standard. Not just for them or the organization, but also for this thriving city.

Because of the Wade statue, Miamians driving along the bay are reminded of this every time they pass. We may be young, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be the best.