NBA fans looking for parity must love what they’ve seen out of the league in recent years.
After all, the last six NBA championships have been won by six different organizations. Moreover, each team left in the 2025 NBA Playoffs is vying for either its first title in franchise history or several decades.
Miami Heat legend Udonis Haslem thinks that the NBA is now entering an “era of parity,” and he believes teams can’t do what the Heat did during their Big 3 era when it comes to roster construction.
“I really do think we are entering the era of parity,” Haslem said. “I think the talent is getting better. I think it’s getting harder to put together superteams because of the money, the taxes, and all these different things. We were just on ESPN the other day, and we were talking about putting together superteams. The conversation was talking about where Giannis [Antetokounmpo] would go, and a lot of people were saying a lot of these different teams. We talked about certain teams having three players.”
Haslem then brought up when he played alongside forward LeBron James, guard Dwyane Wade, big man Chris Bosh and others.
“Back in the day, when I was able to do it with the Miami Heat, we had LeBron, Chris Bosh, and Wade, and we were still able to find a way to sign myself and different guys,” Haslem continued. “It’s just not capable of happening anymore.”
Haslem was a member of the Heat for the entirety of the Big 3 era, which spanned four seasons, and he did a lot of the dirty work for the team in that time. His full impact couldn’t necessarily be read on a stat sheet, as he averaged just 4.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest across 198 regular-season games in the Big 3 era, but he certainly left his mark.
Haslem won two of his three titles as a player while being a complementary piece next to the Big 3, as Miami won consecutive championships in 2012 and 2013.
The three-time NBA champion does make a good point in that there are plenty of obstacles in play nowadays when it comes to roster construction.
However, it’s arguably a good thing for the NBA that there’s more parity and that it isn’t as easy for squads to form rosters like the Big 3 Heat had. Fans haven’t had to see the same few teams advance deep into the playoffs year after year anymore, at least not to the same extent.
Overall, fans have been spoiled with the great competition and parity in the league in recent years, even if teams like the Big 3 Heat are becoming less and less common.