The worst team in the NBA stopped being that in a jubilant instant Thursday night. Younger, better, more fun, more exciting and an immediate playoff contender is what the Miami Heat became with one draft pick and two fairly magical words:

Michael Beasley.

An enormous, rollicking, standing ovation rose in the Heat’s downtown arena from some 4,000 fans at the team’s draft party when commissioner David Stern called Beasley’s name in New York as the league’s No. 2 overall selection. Heat flags waved. Streamers shot from cannons and flew to the rafters, floating down over the delirium.

That was the look and sound of relief, of escape. That was the embarrassment of a 15-67 season lifting, disappearing, replaced by the feel of fresh, real hope. It is good when a team’s high draft pick is popular with fans. It is better – much – when a team’s high draft pick is smart. This one was.

Beasley, the 6-foot-8, 239-pound forward from Kansas State, is can’t-miss, won’t-miss, about as certain a future star as anyone all of 19 years old can possibly be.

Some high draft picks are building blocks, guys whose impact won’t be as obvious. New Dolphins offensive tackle Jake Long, the NFL’s overall No. 1 pick, is one of those. Beasley is not one of those. He will be a scoring, rebounding, high-impact presence from the outset, combining with Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion to give Miami a troika that portends a fast, significant turnaround.

Long will lay the bricks. Beasley will jump over the building.

Incredibly, Heat president and ultimate decision-maker Pat Riley claimed he had to be persuaded to draft and keep Beasley rather than trade him in order to gain additional players and then in turn draft someone else.

“The people I listen to about personnel got me in a room and made sure Mr. Beasley would be a part of the Miami Heat,” Riley said.

Thank goodness for persuasion. Although in this case it must not have taken much. Perhaps just a gentle suggestion that Riley would be inviting a fitting for a straitjacket to replace that Armani suit if Miami had picked anybody else.

Weeks and weeks of rumors and speculation suggested the Heat might do just that after the Chicago Bulls made Memphis point guard Derrick Rose the No. 1 overall pick, as expected. Southern Cal guard O.J. Mayo, maybe?

Must have been a smokescreen to encourage trade offers.

You don’t trade this guy, though. You thank the basketball gods that you had a high enough draft pick the year he presented himself for professional hire.

Questions about Beasley’s maturity? Concerns he’ll be tempted by South Beach? Those things are not nearly as relevant as the answers found in his game.

“We were blown away by Michael’s talent,” new coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s a delightful young man. He is 19, let’s not forget that. At times he will act his age. But in terms of maturity on the court, there’s no mistaking that.”

Beasley assured Heat fans they are getting “a great player, a hard worker, a good rebounder and fun-loving guy off the court.”

Expectations of Beasley are such that you wonder why Miami might have ever considered anybody else.