One of the most controversial offseasons was when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined the Miami Heat in 2010 to team up with co-star Dwyane Wade.
In their first campaign, the James-Wade-Bosh tandem helped the Heat reach the championship stage, where they faced the Dallas Mavericks but fell short in six games.
Miami Heat president Pat Riley talked about the Big Three, who initially struggled to define their roles on the team.
“I talked to them after that first year, and I said, ‘You guys got to work this stuff out.’ You can’t just have a coach say, ‘Okay, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that, you’re going to do it my way,” Riley said, per The OGs podcast.
From 2008 to 2010, the Boston Celtics’ Big Three dominated the Eastern Conference, along with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett.
Aside from that, it was an era where superstars were not usually teaming up in a single franchise team because of possible chemistry issues.
“I said, ‘You got to work this out, and there has to be some voluntary cooperation on your part that you’re all going to accept the role,” the Heat president said.
Riley urged the superstars to get along inside the court by adjusting roles to win a championship, which they fell short of earning in the first year.
“So it was Bron, it was Dwyane and it was Chris. That’s basically how the hierarchy of greatness was. The players accepted that, and they were all great players. That was the most important movement for that team,” he said.
Bosh came from the Toronto Raptors, where he was also a different role on his former team, but learned to adjust, becoming a role player for James and Wade.
“Chris was, without a doubt, if those two players were the real keys, Chris was the one who was the straw that stirred the drink, because he sacrificed most,” Riley added.
The Heat’s former Big Three were actually batchmates from the 2003 draft class, with James the first overall pick, Bosh the fourth overall, and Wade the fifth overall.
