In a recent appearance on ‘The OGs’ show, Heat President Pat Riley raised some eyebrows when he spoke on LeBron’s tenure with the franchise. According to Riley, LeBron left championships on the table when he left the Heat in 2014, and he could have won six or more titles had he given it more times.
“It didn’t upset me but it hurt me that we couldn’t keep that team together,” said Riley. “Because I think it was a 5 or 6 championship team. If we could have kept them all together and stayed healthy from that standpoint. But the nature of the game is what it is.”
LeBron’s stint with the Heat is the shortest of all his teams so far, but it was also his most successful. From 2010-2014, he led the Heat to back-to-back championships in four straight Finals appearances. He won two MVPs with averages of 26.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 6.7 assists per game on 54.3% shooting.
With LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in their prime, the Heat were a dominant force in the East and a level above the competition. That stretch, including a famed 27-game win streak, was some of the best basketball of LeBron’s career and also some of the most controversial.
Sadly, it all ended in the summer of 2014 when James decided to say goodbye to the Heat in favor of a return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He traded Wade and Bosh for Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, and the trio would go on to win a championship together two years later.
Riley believes that James never should have left, and they could have won even more championships had they stayed with Wade and Bosh. Together, there’s no doubt that the “big three” were among the best tandems in the NBA at the time but they were very much on the decline and it would have been extremely difficult for them to win any more championships after going back-to-back in 2012 and 2013.
For one, there’s the rise of the Golden State Warriors. The 2014-15 campaign was the twilight of the Stephen Curry era and nothing was going to get in the way of his NBA takeover. He, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green would have been a tough matchup for the Heat, who were not nearly the same offensive team.
That’s not to mention that the Heat “big three” was already in decline. Whether LeBron left or not, they were going to need to make major roster changes to compensate for Wade’s fading impact and Bosh’s failing health.
It was only a few years after LeBron’s departure that the Heat had to start over entirely but it wasn’t long before they were back on the map as a threat in the East. James, meanwhile, returned to the Finals the very next summer with his new team and a fresh cast of teammates ready to win it all.
So, in the end, LeBron was right for leaving when he did, and he likely saw before anyone else that the window for the Heat to championships was closing. Both he and the Heat were able to cut ties and move on, and it turned out to be the best decision for everyone.
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