Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James spent four very successful seasons with the Miami Heat in the early 2010s, and team president Pat Riley wishes he had stuck around longer. Riley was in Los Angeles on Sunday to witness his statue being unveiled outside Crypto.com Arena, and he was asked about that four-year run with James in his press conference.
“I thought getting the Big 3 of Dwyane [Wade], Chris Bosh, and especially LeBron, that we had finally put together what I thought could become a dynasty,” Riley said. “It was. I mean, four trips to the Finals in a row, two world championships. Was an incredible run
“And as a coach and as somebody who really thought about how to build that particular team and you built it, I saw something that could have lasted 8 to 10 years,” Riley continued. “But I understood, as I said in my speech… the business in the NBA is the business in the NBA. Players have an opportunity to go somewhere else, and he went to Cleveland, and he won a title up there.
“So I wish him nothing but the best,” Riley added. “But I want to be selfish here and say I wish I had him for another eight or six [years]. Six or eight years would have been great, but we’ll never know, will we?”
The Heat completely shifted the balance of power in the NBA when they created the Big 3 of James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in 2010. Wade was already on the team while they acquired James and Bosh via sign-and-trades from the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors, respectively.
The Heat instantly became title favorites with the trio, but would go on to lose in shocking fashion to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals. They rebounded well from that setback, winning back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013. James won MVP and Finals MVP in both of those years and was on top of the basketball world.
A three-peat was in the Heat’s sights, but it wasn’t to be, as the San Antonio Spurs took them down in the 2014 NBA Finals. That would be the last time we saw James suit up for the Heat, as he decided to return to the Cavaliers in the offseason. Riley would have loved for him to stay, but it appears he made the decision to leave a bit easier.
It has been reported that Riley wanted James to take a pay cut to stay with the Heat. The superstar forward wasn’t interested in leaving money on the table, though. Prior to that, Riley also managed to annoy James a bit by banning his favorite snack, chocolate chip cookies, on the team flight.
Would James have stayed had Riley offered him the max contract and not banned those cookies? We’ll never know for sure.
LeBron James Reacted To Pat Riley’s Comments
The Lakers were not able to mark this special night with a win, losing 111-89 to the Boston Celtics. James was informed about Riley’s comments in his postgame media session, and he does think about what might have been.
“I never said, ‘I’m gonna go there four years and decide to go some place else,'” James stated. “That’s just how the cards was played. But yeah, it’s human nature to look back and say, ‘Okay, what could have been?’ But that’s part of life. I thought the four years that we had was great. Obviously, we was able to pick up two chips. We lost two of them, unfortunately.
“But a lot of great memories, a lot of great times there,” James added. “And it would have been interesting to see what could have happened.”
You’d imagine the Heat would have won a couple more titles had James stayed for close to 10 years. He was at the peak of his powers back then.
James would go on to win his third title with the Cavaliers in 2016. He then left them for the Lakers in 2018 and won his fourth title in 2020. James and the Lakers, of course, beat the Heat in the 2020 NBA Finals.
Riley hasn’t tasted ultimate glory since James left, and the Heat aren’t even close to being a contender right now. You wonder whether the 80-year-old’s days of winning titles are well and truly over now.
