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When LeBron James announced in 2010 that he was coming to Miami to play for the Heat and join the likes of Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, it seemed that the Florida team would be an unstoppable force for years to come. That's how it was. In the four years they were together, they played in as many finals, won two titles, but the impression is that they could have done more.
They are especially criticized for the 2010/11 season, in which they rumbled through the Eastern Conference, but in the final itself, they were defeated by complete outsiders, the Dallas Mavericks, led by the fantastic Dirk Nowitzki. Then the following year, the Heat won against young Oklahoma, and in 2013 they outplayed the Spurs after seven games, only to lose to the same team the following season.
At the very presentation of the Big Three 14 years ago, LeBron said that this team would win eight championship rings, but already in 2014, he left the franchise and returned to Cleveland. That departure meant the end of the era of the big three, and it was very difficult for Pat Riley, the president of the team. He talked about it on the podcast "The OGs Show" hosted by former Miami basketball players Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller.
"It didn't upset me but it hurt me that we couldn't keep that team together because it was a team that could have won five or six titles. I really think they would have succeeded if they had been healthy and stayed in the team," Riley said. Riley also thinks of Chris Bosh, who had to end his career just two years after LeBron's departure due to blood clotting problems.
Just creating the Big Three was a big challenge, and Riley revealed how he convinced Wade to trust him and stay in Miami. "We from the management and Wade knew it too. I told him: 'Dwayne, you're in charge here, don't even think about going to Chicago.' We had 48 million in the salary cap at the time, and all three were supposed to get 16,600,000 dollars. We had all three of them. That was the maximum. Today they get 50,000,000."
Years after the breakup of the Big Three of the Heat, information came to the public that LeBron, Wade, and Carmelo Anthony were supposed to move to Chicago and join forces with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. However, Riley managed to convince them to move to Miami, only instead of Anthony, Bosh entered the combination. He seems to have been a better fit than Carmelo, who was asking for a big salary, so he stayed in Denver that summer.
Another important player who arrived in Florida in 2012 was Ray Allen, who hit one of the most important three-pointers in NBA history in the 2013 Finals. "The very thought of Ray leaving Boston and coming to us was beyond reality, so we didn't want to convince Allen too much, but let him make his own decision. He was the last to come to the team that won the second title in a row. He was very important, and the Big Three needed players who could help them."
In the end, LeBron returned to Cleveland, Bosh and Allen retired, Wade moved to Chicago in 2016, returned to Miami in 2018, and ended his career, while Riley slowly built a championship team again. He signed Jimmy Butler in 2019, and he led Miami to two finals, in 2020 and 2023, but they were underdogs both times. They lost first to the Lakers and then to Denver.
Riley on the Heat's plans
This year, they put together a good, warrior-like team. They are currently 7-8, which is good enough for the sixth position in the Eastern Conference standings. At the very end, Riley talked about the Heat's plans: "Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, and Terry Rozier, as well as the others who support them, need to consolidate. To go out on the floor and win, I think they are more than capable of such a thing," said Riley.
Of course, the legendary coach and later general manager did not want to talk about trades, but it seems that Miami is missing one star to help Butler and Adebayo so that the Heat can be a contender for the title again.
It will be interesting to follow the events in the next few months, and see what he could really expect when it comes to this team. An interesting team is available with several stars. However, the team's officials will obviously take further steps.
English (US)