Oct. 30, 2007

LAS VEGAS - Former UNLV men's basketball player Joel Anthony made the roster of the NBA's Miami Heat, who opens their season on Thursday at home against the Detroit Pistons.

The 6-foot-9-inch, 255-pound center originally from Montreal, Canada, was not chosen in the NBA Draft in June, but signed with the Heat as a free agent during the summer. He played with the team during the summer league and was on the preseason roster. In five preseason games with the Heat, Anthony averaged 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.

Miami cut four players on Monday to trim its roster to 15 players.

Anthony was one of five seniors on the 2006-07 Runnin' Rebel squad that finished 30-7, won the MWC Tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. He also played in 2004-05 at UNLV, while he redshirted in 2005-06.

Anthony ended his career as one of the most dominating shot blockers in UNLV history. He shattered the UNLV, MWC and Thomas & Mack Center single-game blocks record with 13 against TCU on Feb. 2 and his 109 blocks during the 2006-07 season were the second-most all-time in UNLV and MWC history. He ended his UNLV career with 157 blocked shots, which is second on the UNLV career list and fourth on the MWC chart.

The 2006-07 Mountain West Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Anthony fell just three blocks short of tying the UNLV single-season blocks record in 2006-07. He finished last year at the top of the MWC in blocks with 2.94 per game, which was also 11th in the country.

There are three other former Runnin' Rebels who will be on opening-day NBA rosters this week: Louis Amundson, who played at UNLV from 2001-06, with the Philadelphia 76ers, Marcus Banks (2001-03) with the Phoenix Suns and Shawn Marion (1998-99) is also with the Suns.