He had a 15-year NBA career for four teams: the Sonics, the Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers), the Chicago Bulls, and the Phoenix Suns.

[9][10] Heard was selected by the Seattle SuperSonics (now the Oklahoma City Thunder) in the third round of the 1970 NBA draft (40th overall).

In October 1972, three games into the 1972-73 season, he was traded to the Chicago Bulls (along with a third round draft pick) for Kenny McIntosh.

[2] The deal was part of the drafting and trade resume that earned Braves General Manager Eddie Donovan, who had constructed the championship New York Knicks teams of the early 1970s, the NBA Executive of the Year Award.

[15] After Donovan returned to the Knicks in April 1975,[14] on February 1, 1976, 50 games into the Braves season, Heard was traded along with a second round pick to the Phoenix Suns for John Shumate.

This is the third most games played in an NBA regular season, behind Walt Bellamy (88) and Tom Henderson (87), and tied with McCoy McLemore (86).

In Buffalo, the team lacked in offensive capability, and became interested in Shumate, offering Heard in a trade.

Heard played more minutes than any other Sun during the six-game series, averaging 13.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.

Future Celtic hall of famer John Havlicek[30] raced down the floor and made a running 15 foot one-handed shot with two seconds remaining, giving Boston a one-point advantage (111–110).

The Boston Garden crowd erupted, believing the game was over, and the Celtics themselves actually went back to their locker room[citation needed].

When play resumed, Heard caught the inbound pass and fired a very high-arcing turnaround jump shot from at least 18-20 feet away over Celtic defender Don Nelson.

[citation needed] The rule has since been changed to award the ball to the team shooting the technical free throw.

[41] He joined the Dallas Mavericks as an assistant coach for the remainder of the season, under Don Nelson[37] (over whom he had taken "the shot" in the 1976 finals).

[42][36] During the 2004–2005 season, he joined Larry Brown's staff for the third time, as an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons.