It was July of 2010 when something took place that shook up the NBA world forever. That was, of course, the Big 3 of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh teaming up in Miami, which would alter the course of NBA history forever. It was a monumental moment that set the Heat on the path of domination, and while it didn’t last for as long as everyone thought it would at the time, they still went down as one of the best teams ever.
It was long thought that the plan to team up was in the works for years, but Dwyane Wade debunked that theory on a recent episode of the “Point Forward” podcast. When asked about when the whole idea of teaming up came to be, Wade stated that he had never thought he was going to team up with LeBron prior to that free agency period.
(starts at 19:22 mark):
“I never thought we was going to play together. Like it never crossed my mind. Playing in the All-Star games and playing in the summer games and playing in the Olympics, that’s one thing, but playing the NBA season together that’s 82, that’s way different. You know how hard that is to think about playing with another ball-dominated guy. It wasn’t as many shots as it is now, the pace wasn’t the same as it is now, so it looked even harder to even think that.”
“So it was nothing that was on my mind until free agency in 2010, when we started going through the process of free agency, there was nothing on my mind until then about even playing together. A lot of people think we came up with it, I wish we were this smart. Like, we go with this plan like we’re building it from 2004 to 2008, but we weren’t that smart.”
It is interesting to hear him say this, as everyone had assumed the plan was in place. As Wade points out, two ball-dominant players coming together was going to be difficult, but his willingness to take a back seat and allow LeBron to take over ensured that it worked out. Wade got 2 championships out of that partnership, and he would take that over any individual accolades that he would have otherwise gotten in that time.
He stated as much during this episode, where he spoke about what it meant to make the NBA 75th Anniversary Team and how that was the first time in years he had cared about an individual honor.
