Details Of How The Heat Super Team Came Together Will Make Every Bulls Fan Puke

Nobody hates the Miami Big 3 Era more than me, mostly because their success came at the expense of the tail end of the Celtics Big 3 Era, but one thing I do find fascinating is every time we get little nuggets of how the whole thing went down way back in 2010. We’ve had bits and pieces come out over the years, there’s theories that they all planned this super team years before, and the Miami Herald recently ran a story that shed some additional light on how these three HOF talents ended up joining forces. I went through and picked out my favorite parts and they are things you may not know about this NBA altering decision. Let me just warn any Bulls/Knicks fans out there, this might be painful.

“When we were trying to make a decision of what city we wanted to play in or what we wanted to be, we had to keep our options open,” Wade said to Richardson and Miles. “Chicago was on top of both of our lists. They had two max contracts and they had a young [Derrick] Rose. They had a Luol Deng, they had [Joakim] Noah, they had all these pieces. So I’m like, ‘In Chicago, in one of the biggest markets?’

“But listen, then we looked at New York. And when it came down to it, Miami was the only team with enough money to get all three of us. Every other team only had two [max contracts]. When it came down to it, we thought CB was the perfect match. And ultimately bro, I just wanted to win.”

You may remember the summer of 2010 was another famous summer where Knicks fans were convinced they were going to land LeBron. Here we are 9 years later and not much has changed, and while we knew that those teams were rumored to be in contention, it’s still crazy to hear Wade admit that both CHI/NYK got real consideration. Can you imagine that Bulls team with young and prime DRose, Loul Deng when he actually was a living breathing shut down two way wing, Wade and LeBron? Then you sprinkle in Joakim Noah who was one of the best defensive big men in the league at the time? That team is pretty damn terrifying. I get why they turned down NY, that was basically Amare and a young Gallo (before the Melo trade) and that’s pretty much it. But that Bulls team would have been something ridiculous.

“Pat comes in. Everyone’s quiet,” Bosh wrote in his first-person essay for The Players’ Tribune. “We shake hands and sit down. With the other teams, the pitches all took a similar format: They’d show their PowerPoint, swipe through some photos on an iPad. You know, like: Here you are in a photoshopped Nets uniform. [Swipe.] Or, Here you are on a giant photoshopped poster in front of the United Center. [Swipe.] That whole deal.

This will never not make me laugh. You have this huge free agent meeting and you go with the Vinny Chase approach.

There are really NBA teams that think a player seeing themselves in a Photoshopped jersey is going to be what seals the deal? I would think there’s no way that’s true and yet Bosh confirmed it. NBA front offices are filled with some of the smartest people you’ll find and they really think players give a shit what they look like in a certain uniform. That’s wild to me.

“Pat goes, ‘All right, Chris — let me tell you something. I’ll make it simple.’ He says the Heat have enough cap space to bring in me and LeBron, and also to keep Dwyane. Then he takes off his suit jacket, rolls up his sleeves, and empties something on the table. HAHA! It’s a straight-up bagful of championship rings. Rolling around on the conference table, right in front of us. And then Pat looks at me, looks at my dad, and he says, “This right here … this is what it’s about, guys.”

Listen I despise Pat Riley for a number of reasons. Given his history in LA and MIA that’s sort of engrained in my brain, but there’s no denying this is a boss move. I mean you have other teams rocking PowerPoints and he comes in and throws his dick (rings) on the table. THAT’S how you make an impression. I also love how nonchalant Riley is with these rings that probably cost 10s of thousands of dollars. Just tosses them on the table and lets them roll around like they’re goddamn ring pops or something. I had heard stories of this Riley approach before, but I assumed he pulled out a nice jewelry box or something. There’s just something so cocky about showing off your rings in the way Riley did it I can’t help but respect it.

Bosh goes on to talk about how they definitely didn’t hatch this plan in the 2008 Olympics, and I’m not sure I totally buy that. It’s wild to think what could have been for the NBA had LeBron/Wade just decided them two pairing was enough, especially if they ended up in Chicago. Obviously they still had a decent amount of success in Miami and the NBA sort of changed forever with this decision, but that’s definitely one of the more entertaining NBA “what ifs” you can have.

So while it’s cool to hear a little more about what went on way back in 2010, I still hate this team’s guts. Fucking Shane Battier man. I’m still having nightmares of that Bosh corner three too in Game 7.

Now that I think about it I don’t know why I even wrote this blog because it’s making me mad online. Might as well end it here.