In the summer of 2010, star forward LeBron James and a pair other stars in Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh formed one of the more iconic trios in NBA history on the Miami Heat.
However, there’s more to the story than meets the eye, and it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Heat that summer.
Five Reasons Sports’ Ethan J. Skolnick has provided some insight on some of the events that led up to the Big 3’s formation. Allegedly, James was ready to join the Heat on the condition that Wade and Bosh would be on the team with him, but whether or not they both would end up with the Heat was up in the air for a little while.
Wade reportedly met with the Chicago Bulls twice that summer, and the Heat also met with two top free agents at the big man spot in David Lee and Carlos Boozer just in case Bosh didn’t join, though James didn’t want either player.
“LeBron was in if wade and bosh were in,” Skolnick wrote via Discord.
“Wade and Bosh had the same agent
“The Heat couldn’t reach the agent
“The Heat met with boozer and Lee in case Bosh didn’t come
“LBJ didn’t want either
“They got a sense Bosh was coming but then they couldn’t get a commitment from Wade
“He met with the bulls twice
“When they finally got him; they were set
“Wade was an attraction more than a recruiter”
At the time, Boozer had just put together a season in which he averaged 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds per game with the Utah Jazz. As for Lee, he averaged 20.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per contest with the New York Knicks in the 2009-10 season and was named an All-Star before he hit free agency in the summer of 2010.
It probably worked out for the best from Miami’s side of the coin that the team landed Bosh and didn’t sign Boozer or Lee. It’s possible that a lesser role for Boozer or Lee wouldn’t have worked out as well with Miami as it did with Bosh.
Before he got to Miami, Bosh was a top scoring option with the Toronto Raptors for many years. But during the four seasons of the Big 3 era in Miami, Bosh never averaged more than 18.7 points or 14.2 shot attempts per contest.
Of course, Wade, James and Bosh had lots of success as a trio, and they helped Miami win plenty of championship hardware. The Heat captured back-to-back titles in the years 2012 and 2013 and reached the NBA Finals for a whopping four years in a row as well.