LeBron James has no regrets over his move to the Miami Heat in 2010, but it changed the way a lot of players thought of him at the time. Speaking on his podcast, former NBA point guard Jeff Teague revealed what the thinking was in the NBA during James’ infamous decision and how it completely snuffed the title hopes of players around the league at the time.
“Let’s keep it real. I remember when Bron came to Miami. Everybody was like, ‘This sh*t is weak.’ I ain’t gonna lie. I don’t give a fu*k. I was in my third year,” said Teague. “I was like, ‘I don’t care. I just wanna hoop. I’m trying to get paid.’ But I remember Joe [Johnson]… and he was just like, ‘Why would they do this sh*t?’ He’s like, ‘This sh*t’s weak, man! Bron, he weak for that!'”
The summer of 2010 was a major turning point in NBA history. After Kobe Bryant won his fifth and final championship that year, LeBron James began his NBA takeover with his decision to join the Heat and team up with Wade and Bosh.
As Dwyane Wade himself later revealed, he recruited LeBron that summer after watching Kobe win it all and his words were enough to sway James into leaving the Cavaliers. Together, LeBron and the Heat dominated the Eastern Conference and won back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013.
LeBron would end up leaving the Heat after just four years, but his time there forever changed the NBA in more ways than one. Today, many stars have since followed a similar path and it has led to the era of player empowerment. Love him or hate him, LeBron James set the example with his move to Miami and many stars were opposed to the move, even back then.
‘The Decision’ Almost Didn’t Happen
When James announced his choice to join the Heat that summer, it was to the great displeasure of countless NBA fans, who felt that he disrupted the NBA’s balance of power. While the concept of a “super team” was not yet popularized, fans felt James had taken the easy road by tying his destiny to co-stars like Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Of course, the move worked out to everyone’s benefit in the end and it was a relatively short-lived period of James’ career. But LeBron almost didn’t go there at all that summer, and it would have forever changed how things panned out for the rest of the league.
According to LeBron’s wife Savannah, she wasn’t a huge fan of Miami at first and tried to sway her husband against signing there before she was ultimately convinced. There’s also the fact that moving to Miami would have made LeBron the public enemy No. 1 in the NBA community, and he had to embrace the villain role for years before finally winning over the public’s favor.
In the end, LeBron probably made the right decision that year, even if it wasn’t the most popular among fans and players. With the Heat, he learned how to win and learned the kind of pieces he needed to maximize his game. Whether you think of it as “weak” or not, James wouldn’t take it back for anything and it’s part of the reason he’s the player that he is today.
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