South Florida looking for Stanley Cup and NBA championship in same year

Well, the Miami Heat and Florida Panthers have a chance to make history. That's right. An NBA team and NHL team from the same region have never won the championship in the same year. Now, the Nuggets won the first game against the Heat last night in Denver, while the Florida Panthers will travel to Vegas for the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals tomorrow. The Panthers have never won a championship. So joining us now are sports reporters from CBS News Miami. Mike Cugno is in Denver covering the NBA Finals, while Samantha Rivera is in Las Vegas covering the Stanley Cup Finals. Welcome to you both. It's so great to talk to you. Mike, let's start with you. How are fans in South Florida feeling about potentially making history? Well, if I'm honest with you, they're gassed. They're exhausted, but definitely excited. Look, these two teams were literally the last two teams in their respective sports to make it into the postseason, and now they're part of the final two standing in both the finals. I mean, every day for the last three or four weeks, there has either been a Panther game or a Miami Heat game on the television sets down in South Florida. So fans have been on the edge of their seat, and it's not gonna get any easier because if both of these series end up going seven games, end up going the distance, we're talking about a 19-day stretch where South Florida fans will have to be buckled up. But you know what? They're both eighth seeds. They're both playing with house money, but it is time to get greedy. And how about a dual parade in South Florida? As you guys mentioned, we've never seen that ever in the history of sports here in the United States. What a party that would be. Yeah. And Samantha, the Heat and Panthers are facing two of the best teams in their leagues, the Nuggets and the Knights. So how do fans in South Florida feel about the team's chances? Oh, they feel very, very good. And it's interesting because regardless of all the odds stacked up against both of these teams, you know, whether they were playing the Bucs or the Celtics, the Bruins, or the Canes, they stood behind their teams. They had belief in them all this way. And now they're here, you know, fighting for a championship title. Now they have an opportunity to be the first city to bring home an NHL and an NBA championship title for the first time ever. So if you think my South Florida fans are annoying now, they're gonna be even wild, more crazy, and more wild if they manage to do that. Yeah, Samantha, I wonder about the bigger picture here for the Panthers, because they have not reached the final since 1996, so is there hope that maybe this is the beginning of a new era? There absolutely is. You know, a little bit ago we talked to a guy who was on that former 1996 team, the last team to make it to the Stanley Cup final, Bill Lindsey, and he was telling us, you know, he never got to raise that Stanley Cup. And so if the Panthers do it this time around, he's definitely gonna be raising that. So he has a lot of belief in this team, as a lot of fans do. You know, this is a team that has, you know, fought through all of their obstacles with a lot of guys that have just had fun along the way. I think that's really the biggest thing here. They have a lot of confidence, you know. They have an incredible goalie who, you know, has just arguably been one of, if not the best goalies in these playoffs. You've had Matthew Kachuk, who has been huge for the Panthers as well. So there's definitely a lot of belief that this team can, you know, bring home that title for South Florida. And Mike, this is the Heat's second finals in four years. So is anything short of winning a championship a failure for Miami? I wouldn't say a failure, but if you've ever heard the term Heat culture, it is definitely a thing. The standard around this organization is very high. But as we mentioned, and as Samantha just mentioned, some of the teams that the Miami Heat have gone through, both the Bucks and the Celtics, you're talking about some of the best players on the planet and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown. They have a belief that if they can knock off those guys, then they can certainly compete with the Denver Nuggets, one of the best team in the West that sports a two-time MVP in Nikola Jokic and rising star, I shouldn't say rising star. He is a legitimate star already in Jamal Murray. Last night, the shots didn't fall. It's hard to miss 26 three-pointers in a game. So you gotta think that'll get corrected. But if they can get one win here on the road, they steal home court advantage away from Denver with the series shifting down to South Florida. And if that happens, look out because it has been the MO and the blueprint for the Miami Heat this entire postseason. Get one on the road first, take care of business at home, and then clinch it when you have the opportunity. Samantha, you know what? So many reasons for people in South Florida to cheer. And I wonder if this excitement might have an impact on fans of the Marlins and the Dolphins, which as we know, have not done quite so well lately. Yeah, you know, I think they definitely have hope that maybe, you know, the Marlins can kind of pick up the speed, right? They can follow these teams. I think they serve as a lot of inspiration, right? Because they want South Florida sports teams to do well. So yeah, I think a lot of the fans are looking at the teams and they're like, well, maybe we can do the same. Yeah, Mike, I'm curious because, you know, it is kind of contagious, right? People see success and they want the same kind of success to continue in other sports. What do you think? Could this maybe help those fans as well? Absolutely. Look, the Marlins are in their season, so it's kind of hard for those guys to be either courtside or at the rink for these games. But you mentioned the Dolphins, head coach Mike McDaniel, all-star, our Pro Bowl cornerback, Jalen Ramsey. Those guys have been at the Heat games. They've been at the Panther games. Mike McDaniel, at one of his press conferences recently, you know, congratulated both teams and made the note that they're taking notice. So there is a standard right now in South Florida sports, not just because of what the Panthers and Heat have done, but you can go back a couple months and talk about the Miami Hurricanes and the FAU Owls both making the Final Four. This has been a historic calendar year for South Florida. The Dolphins, the Marlins, got a little work to do, but if they can get into the playoffs too, this will be one of the wildest years in South Florida sports history. All right, I feel like a lot of people are crossing their fingers. Oh yeah, gonna be exciting. Mike Cuneo and Samantha Rivera, thank you so much.