Beginning his 37th season in the NBA and his 20th with the Miami HEAT, Ron Culp is the only Athletic Trainer/Travel Coordinator the franchise has ever known. Culp, who was one of the founding members of the National Basketball Athletic Trainers Assocation (NBATA), is the dean among active trainers in NBA years of experience. The 2007-08 season will mark his record-setting 37th NBA season. Four years ago he surpassed former Phoenix Suns trainer Joe Proski, for the most in NBA history. The 2000-01 season saw Culp become just the second trainer in league history to work 30 seasons in the NBA, joining Proski who retired prior to the start of the 2000-01 campaign after 32 NBA seasons. Culp has missed just one regular season game in his previous 35 seasons (2,837 games). Last season he surpassed former Indiana Pacers trainer David Craig in total years of professional basketball service (NBA and ABA) as an athletic trainer.

As the only athletic trainer ever to be honored as NBA Trainer of the Year three times, Culp began his long run in the league in 1970-71 as the first trainer of the then-expansion Cleveland Cavaliers. He worked with the Cavaliers until 1974, when he joined the Portland Trail Blazers. Before coming to the HEAT, Culp was with the Blazers from 1974-87, where he was a member of the 1977 NBA
championship team. He reached a personal milestone on
March 31, 2001 when the HEAT traveled to Indiana, the game
marked the 2,500th of his NBA career.

A 1969 graduate of Bowling Green University, Culp began his training career at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, before accepting the Cleveland job. He has been honored by the NBATA in 1986-87, 1995-96 and 2005-06 as Trainer of the Year. Culp has served as chairman of the NBATA on three separate occasions.

In the summer of 1994, Culp was a trainer for the United States team that won the gold medal at the World Championship of Basketball in Toronto, Ontario. He was also one of the trainers for the U.S. Olympic team that won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Culp lives in Coconut Grove and has two daughters, Amanda and Elizabeth.