A friend challenged me to build a wooden basketball.  He also happened to have extra teak from his deck that he gave me, so it seemed natural to build the first basketball from a piece of 2X6 deck material.

Then came the idea of making a more whimsical basketball, which was also intended to give a hint how the piece is made.  The connection to the Miami Heat logo was incidental, but maybe buried in my subconscious.