I was in Orlando before Miami, and I came straight to Miami. And I've been here for like twenty nine thirty years, and Miami raised me. And Miami is what I flag, that I wave and that I breathe, and I believe everything is Miami.
You know what I'm saying.
You know, Miami, We just different. You know what I'm saying, Like we special, We confident, and you know what I mean, this would love.
We don't see.
Nobody me And he asked in like, we Miami.
You know what I'm saying.
That In case you didn't recognize, the voice was famed DJ, record producer, record executive, rapper and Miami Heat superfan DJ Khaled.
Why start a podcast about.
One of the more intriguing teams in NBA history with a musical artist raving about the city.
Well, first of all, why not?
There'll be plenty more of that unmistakable voice throughout by the way. Second, because this Heat team's story wasn't just about high profile teammates getting together to reach an extremely lofty goal. It had the secondary effect of elevating a franchise and an entire city.
Along the way.
There might be some of you listening right now who only learned of Kalid because of that Heat fandom. There are definitely some of you listening who only know who I am largely because of that Miami Heat team. I'm your host, Israel Gutierrez, and I, like Khaled, was raised by Miami. I've lived here since I was two years old, growing up a fan of all the local teams, which started with only the Dolphins but then eventually expanded to
the Heat, Panthers, and Marlins. I became a journalist after graduating from the University of Florida and fortunately never had to leave South Florida. When I began my professional career in two thousand, the same teams I grew up watching and cheering for I suddenly had to cover as an objective journalist. By twenty ten, I'd covered the Heat as a beat writer for seven years and had been a
columnist at the Miami Herald for three. That's ten years as a professional to tag onto another decade of just being a Miami fan, and nothing, absolutely nothing could have prepared me or any Miami native, frankly, for what was on the way. It's the start of twenty ten, and Miami was about to host its tenth Super Bowl and
second in four years. Miami as a city was comfortable being at the center of the sports landscape, but mostly as a host to outside teams and their fans, Fans looking to get kissed by the sun and possibly experience a twenty four hour nightclub in between cheering on their teams.
Rare was the occasion.
Where Miami's own sports would garner the type of attention that caught the nation's eye for any length of time, and in twenty ten, Miami was in one of those sleepy sports cycles where there wasn't much to look at. The Florida Panthers were in the midst of their ninth straight season missing the playoffs. The Florida Marlins were only seven years removed from a second World Series in team history, but were about to start a seventh straight season without
reaching the postseason again. And the Miami Dolphins were in the second year of a seven year stretch with no playoffs.
Then there were the Miami Heat. The Heat had won the championship in two thousand and six in the second season after Shaquille O'Neill blessed the town with championship legitimacy, and in the third season of now superstar Dwayne Wade, who the Heat drafted in two thousand and three, But that flash of sports supremacy faded quickly as Shak's relationship with the organization deteriorated, and he was traded to Phoenix in two thousand and eight after only three plus seasons
with the Heat. In the few years that followed their championship, Wade had won a scoring title in two thousand and nine and was third in MVP voting. He was matching or surpassing the best players in the league with his performances, but he also happened to play the same shooting guard position as Kobe Bryant, the Lakers legend who had won four titles that would win his fifth in twenty ten.
Even as Wade was leading the eight Olympic team in scoring, it was Kobe who received most of the adoration and all of the starting nods for the gold medal winning Redeem team. What the Miami Heat organization did over the next four years to maximize their success with Wade, who was still in his prime, was simply builled one of the most dynamic, controversial, explosive, exciting, successful, and unforgettable teams
in sports history. Teaming with Wade would be Lebron James, the game's best player, and Chris Bosh, another highly skilled All Star with championship aspirations.
It was a joining of forces so.
Surprising it was difficult to believe it even as it was happening. It was a team so immediately rich with high end talent and even more pressurized expectations, it would almost be impossible to sustain for any extended length of time. This wasn't just about an organization cashing in while it could for some additional gold trophies. It was now about a responsibility to the game of basketball to make sure
this worked. To make sure Lebron, a player who many already predicted could rival the greatest of all time, would finally break through and start his run toward basketball immortality that only can truly begin with an NBA championship, to make sure Wade and Bosh cement their Hall of Fame careers with multiple rings. It was a team that, if it worked, would revive a city and more importantly, empower and encourage other players to take more control of their
careers and change the NBA forever. And little did anyone really know at the time, but Miami would have a limited amount of time to complete all of that.
Four years of.
Heat and yes, I said the name of the podcast, four years of a team that ran so hot it probably couldn't last much longer than it actually did. Dan Lebttard has been writing and talking about sports in his hometown of Miami for portions.
Of four decades.
He's attended the University of Miami. He's written for the Miami Herald, written and worked on television and radio for ESPN, and currently is running his own media company, meatal Ark Media, highlighted by its signature podcast, The Dan Lebotard Show with Stu Goatts. There might not be a better person to paint the picture of the Miami sports landscape than Lebtard.
The Heat had experienced the most consistent success of the pro sports teams in town, but not enough to stand out amongst more established winners.
Miami had established itself as a town that had at Riley and before Dwayne Wade, Alonzo Mourning, Tim Hardaway, and so there had been some winning, but basketball was not dominating this town. Even in failure, which the Dolphins had plenty of, the Dolphins were still the thing in the town and the star power of the team. The furthest it went was Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. Those were the successful teams, the ones that would always die at
Michael Jordan's doorstep. It wasn't a champion, It was largely a regional team, not a national one, and locally, this was absolutely not a basketball town. Liked basketball, but basketball probably was behind baseball and football.
Back then, Wade had known the ultimate success, both as an individual and with his team, but in his seventh NBA season, he'd been chasing that championship feeling again for a few years now. A seven game first round series lost to the Atlanta Hawks and nine was nice, but nowhere near the thrill he'd get from facing those Detroit Pistons teams deep into the playoffs just a few years prior.
Shot Cock is off.
We'll dribble it out.
For the first time in franchise history.
The Miami Heat are going to the NBA Finals.
Wade knew what basketball at its highest level felt like. He wanted that again, and there was one game in particular in twenty ten, in the middle of a season that was far short of special from Miami that reminded him of what that felt like and maybe even gave us a glimpse of what kind of basketball wizardry was
headed toward the three to zero five. It was a game between the Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers and what was then still called American Airlines Arena, and it featured a matchup of redeemed team pals Wade and Lebron James.
I still talk about that game today when people asked me, like, what was your favorite kind of game in the NBA?
That's all Mario Vernard Chalmers. You might just know him as Mario Chalmers, a collegiate champion at Kansas who was in his second year in the league in twenty ten and started about a quarter of the Heats games at point guard.
And that was like the one time I felt myself as a player being in the moment and I'll just want to watch, like I don't I don't want to do anything but watch Lebron go this way, d Wade go that way. And that's what I was just like, Wow, He's like, this is what it takes to be a superstar league. This is why these guys are stars, And like I was really starstruck in that moment in the.
Game That game was on January twenty fifth, twenty ten. Wade in the Heat were in the middle of a forty seven wins season that would earn them the fifth seed in the playoffs, while Lebron was in the midst of his second straight MVP season on a Cabs team that would lead the league with sixty one wins. There wasn't quite love in the air that night, but there wasn't nearly as much venom for an opponent as usual.
In fact, it would be Lebron's last visit to Miami before his free agency that offseason, so the fans were a little extra friendly to help court the King a few months early, bringing signs that would hope to get his attention. A few of the signs looked professionally executed, with the most memorable one being a fake Facebook page with Lebron's status as in the relationship with the Miami Heat. A little more than halfway through the second quarter, Wade and James put on a back and forth duel.
That builds legends.
This was the jaw dropping stretch of game Chalmers was talking about. James and Wade already had a few moments in this showcase of stars but with five eleven left in the first half, Lebron unknowingly started the memorable exchange by dunking on Wade and.
Another steal this hoop by Paris show here comes James again. The freak trainers left the state to exports for the term of foul on Twainne Wade.
Oh my Wade was float.
He was going up for a light up.
Lebron dunked the ball, Wade jumped up with two hands trying to block it.
He gets the foul.
What a move by Lebron.
James, giving the Cavaliers their first lead of the game, a nineteen to four run, and the explosion by James.
Wow.
Wade never took well to being on the wrong end of a highlight play, so the very next play he drew foul and hit two free throws.
After that, a pair of.
Lebron free throws, and then two of the most dynamic athletes in the game decided to put on a shooting display that gave this regular season game an all star field.
Oh baby, three point offul way that he got bowled. Oh James answers back with a free ball, and with these two guys, it's anything you can do. I can do better. It's on a game, coach, and it started early. Wade with twenty three, James with sixteen. Here he goes again.
Oh man, the crowd trying to egg on Dwayne Wade just should come back again.
Now Here it comes, Wade colliding with Vanish out one of the great individual shows you will ever see. It's an instant classic shot clock at six Wade against Parker. There's a three, and there's your third baby. Oh man, who Dwayne Wade's best scoring half of the year, thirty? Here he goes three on the way and what else would you expect? What else would you expect from Lebron James their way from the backcourt.
Oh man, don't take your eye off this game.
Wade and James sheer smile and how could you not enjoy it?
Right along with.
Him, Wade literally skipped off the floor on his way to the halftime locker room after sharing a glance and a smile with Lebron. That high level of basketball he'd been so familiar with was back on that Monday night in Miami, and his friend Lebron providing all the counterpunches made him feel alive again.
You know, their competition is great at then they you know, we understand it's a team game, you know, and I think second hand I proved there. But you know, it's moments within the game where you know, you take on the competition of it. You know, it's it's it's a little bit of anything you can do, I can do better, you know, count of competition for a little while, and it's fun for the fans. And you know, long as we're not doing anything outside of what our team wants
to do, it's good for our team. So, you know, probably one of the best second quarters that I've had, and you know, just back and forth was good.
Four point one seconds left of the fourth quarter, Miami trailing ninety two to ninety one. He will have Clinton Richardson in bound. He's got Jermaine o'nial all stood Wade at Haslam and here we go. Wade catches it guarded by James for the win, Miami's fifth one point game and their second one point loss.
Wade in the home crowd left slightly disappointed, but feeling like they'd made their point to one Lebron James.
Fast forward to the end of that season. The Heat had just.
Been knocked out of the playoffs as the number five seed by the fourth seeded Boston Celtics. It was the second consecutive first round exit from Miami, and this one didn't even include the seven game drama that the previous year series against Atlanta managed. In five games, Wade had just averaged thirty three point two points on fifty six percent shooting, including forty percent from three, with six point eight assists five point six rebounds, but could manage only
one win in the series against the Celtics. On the postgame podium in a makeshift press conference in the bowels of Boston's TD Garden, Wade made a declaration so confident it had some wondering if that was more than just a superstar believing in himself.
H Like I said before the playoffs started, this this playoff run and drive, I had no indication on my decision. I'm going for Well, this will be my last first round exit for a while, I'll tell you that. So I'm looking forward to, you know, continue to build and being with some great players next year.
Tim Reynolds has been covering the Miami Heat since the two thousand and two oh three season, the last before Wade was drafted. By this point, he'd grown close enough to Wade to know there was extra meaning behind that statement.
When Dames staffer at the podium in Boston and said that, I'm like, hmm, okay, there's something to it.
Two rounds later, there was another disappointed superstar sending signals. The Celtics had just knocked Lebron James out of the playoffs in six games. James was playing through a bulky elbow and ended the deciding Game six with twenty seven points, nineteen rebounds, ten assists, and nine turnos, but.
Boston Selfix were the huge upset. They advanced to the conference.
Finals, and Lebron james season is over?
Is his career in Cleveland over?
As he walked off the floor and into the tunnel leading to the Cavs locker room, James took off his Cavalier's jersey, and once he entered the locker room, casually flipped it to an attendant.
Cleveland fans wondering if that's the last time he'll take off a Cavalier jersey?
What did it mean? Everyone wanted to know.
In less than two months time, Lebron would be an unrestricted free agent for the first time. Following seven years in Cleveland, his adopted city after growing up in nearby Akron, Ohio, James would have to make the most difficult decision of his professional career, the answer to the.
Question everybody wants to know, Lebron, What's your decision?
Jim Gray is a media sports legend.
He's interviewed icons of sports like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Kobe.
Bryant, and Mike Tyson.
Once famously, with a broken back spinal, he wrote a book called Talking to Goats, The Moments You Remember and the Stories You Never Heard, and among the subjects was Lebron. James Gray had known Lebron from his days covering him
in high school to his early NBA days. Gray would also fly to Lebron's hometown of Akron, Ohio to cover the annual PGA Firestone Golf Tournament, where he would also visit with Maverick Carter, Lebron's longtime friend and business manager since two thousand and six, and other associates of Lebron, including the other founders of their agency and sports marketing firm, lrimr Rich Paul and Randy Mims. Of all the interviews
Gray has completed in his career. He would have one nationally televised event with Lebron that would become one of his most controversial. James chose to air his free agency decision live on ESPN the evening of July eighth, twenty ten, in the form of a one hour special. The Decision, as the show was called, peaked at more than thirteen
million viewers. As Lebron would announce his choice. About halfway into the special, I talked with Jim about how that option came about and whether or not he thought that interview would set in motion such a wave of hatred toward the best basketball player in the game. It began with a conversation at an NBA Finals game in Los Angeles in twenty ten between Gray and Carter.
I just saw Maverick Carter that evening of a playoff game sitting with Ari Emmanuel, who was the head of William Morris Endeavor, And they were sitting in Ari's front row seats and the Lakers were playing, and I walked down and saw him at halftime and shook his hand, and I said, Hey, Mav, would it be possible to do the first interview with Lebron after he chooses his team, and he said, I would consider that, And then it just out of nowhere, I kind of said, and you know,
perhaps we should just do an hour special and have him announce it on the air. What's the difference between that in a press conference? You know, let him make his own announcement. And Ari said, that's a brilliant idea, and Mavericks said, right then, he said, you know, we could probably raise a bunch of money for charity.
For full context, the idea of Lebron announcing his decision in that public a manner was mentioned in a mail bag column by noted Boston sports fan Bill Simmons. A reader named Drew Wagner was inspired by high school recruits announcing their college choices live on television and recommended a live show on ABC called Lebron's Choice. But it wouldn't
be Simmons who executed the plan. Gray brought it up to Carter at that Finals game, and Carter convinced Lebron to do it, while the Manual pitched the idea to then ESPN president John Skipper.
We had an opportunity to possibly put it on NBC because I had worked at NBC on the NBA for a long time, and Maverick ultimately felt that it should be with one of the NBA carriers ESPN, ABC or Turner, and that was fine, and so they eventually worked something out with ESPN and with John Skipper to take over the time, and we raised six and a half million dollars for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and it's still, i believe, to this day, the largest contribution
that has ever been made to that organization and has helped the lives of countless, hundreds of thousands of kids.
Skipper was very young ho because he knew the amount of attention that this was going to garner and he was one hundred percent behind that because it represented the largest audience they'd ever had for a television show, not for a live event, for a television show, which which I believe still holds up to this day, for a show, you know, not to be confused with a Monday night football game or perhaps an NBA you know, playoff game or something of that ill, but for a one off show for that hour.
You know, he knew just how much people would watch.
It, and he knew, you know, that it would be it would be must see TV.
ESPN assigned Gray a producer he was familiar with, and they went over Gray's interview, questions and plans for the show. The next day, Gray met with Lebron and his associates for some promotional photos and then drove from a nearby home to the Boys and Girls Club in Gretich, Connecticut. With them was Lebron's then girlfriend and now wife, Savannah Brinson. Gray said the ride was largely quiet, in part because he himself asked not to know what team Lebron was choosing ahead of time.
I did not want to know what his decision was. I intentionally told Maverick, told Lebron and told Leon Rose, do not tell me because I didn't want to know.
I wanted it to be real, at least from my end.
And I also didn't want to be the one who accidentally blurts this out, because anything can happen. You know, somebody's talking to your So I just didn't want to know. I wanted to know when the audience knew.
Quick pause, we already know.
There's no way to truly have predicted how negative the response was to Lebron airing this decision. The purity of the idea raising millions for the Boys and Girls Club of America while announcing information everyone is dying to know. It's really hard to dispute. How could anyone truly see the level of vitriol that would follow such a selfless act of charity. Well, a few folks did. Jackie McMullen
was one. Jackie is a now retired NBA writer who worked for The Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated and ESPN, among other media outlets along the way. She not only saw that an hour special for a ten second announcement seemed like ego inflated overkill, but she called the move unfathomable on ESPN News the night before the decision.
I was actually in Bristol, Connecticut for a couple of days in advance of the decision, and I remember going on the air I think it was live, and saying, don't do this. The self importance of thinking that your decision is more important than any decision ever made in the history of the NBA. Now think about it. At that point, Lebron has won exactly nothing. Now he's gone on to be arguably the greatest or one of the greatest,
depending on where you land. Players of all time. He certainly proved us wrong in terms of his own self worth. If you will, and you know, but in that moment, do not tell Cleveland what you were doing until moments before you told everybody else, or in some cases, I think moments after you told everybody else. I just didn't understand the logic behind that.
Just one day before the decision, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh had already announced their free agency choice. They did it live on ESPN exclusively in an interview with a respected journalist, Michael Wilbot. They announced they'd be playing in Miami, Wade, of course, resigning, and Bosh leaving Toronto, the only team he'd known for seven seasons. Sound familiar.
We're gonna cut right to the chase, Dwayne and Chris.
Dwayne will start with you, where are you gonna be playing next season?
Well, I'm back in Miami, man, I'm back in as now.
So now I'm back in Wade County, back.
In Miami with the heat.
Chris, you want to jump in and tell us where you're gonna be as well.
Yeah, I'm joining mister Wade in Miami. These final decisions, God, you don't have to say, go.
On until tomorrow.
Is there we will room?
Could somebody else come and steal you between now and then?
Yeah, I mean I'm fine. I think we're both fine with this situation. We wanted to play with each other and we have a golden opportunity to do that. So, uh, we're going to take advantage of him.
And thanks to ESPN for that clip.
They didn't raise money for charity with the announcement, but it was just fifteen minutes, still longer than it needed to be, and it got no such negative public reaction that would all be saved up for Lebron regardless. And Gray could see in Lebron's eyes that evening that he felt the weight of his words.
And I could see that Lebron was pensive. I could see that, you know, he wasn't nervous, and he wasn't anxious, but you could see that there was a lot on his mind and that this weight was going to be lifted from his shoulders, or that that that he was going to have to carry was going to get heavier. So you know, it was really really a juxtaposition because it could be one or the other.
If this was some ego soaked choice for Lebron. It certainly didn't come across on camera. He sounded careful and looked like he wanted no real part of the cameras.
The answer to the question everybody wants to know, Lebron, what's your decision?
And this fall, man, it's very tough, And this fall, I'm gonna take my talents to Southern Beach and join the Miami Heat.
Miami Heat. That was the conclusion he woke up with this morning.
That was the conclusion I woke up with this morning.
Thanks again to ESPN for that sound.
His choice of words were famously mocked, despite the fact that the taking my talents phrasing was just him parroting his good pal and respected vet Kobe Bryant's words from when he left high school and announced his NBA plans.
Kobe Bryant, I've decided my talents to no I had decided to skip college and take my talent in the NBA.
Well, it's hard to imagine even Lebron would be prepared for a nation of sports fans to temporarily despise him. Gray believes Lebron's destination of choice was a source of comfort.
Not knowing how it was going to be received.
Obviously, I think he was very happy because he was going to a place that he wanted to go.
He had made that decision to.
Go with with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and pat Riley and the Miami Heat and to move on from territory that he had been in his entire life and things that were very comfortable, and he was, you know, going to take that next step. And in many ways it was you know, the recruiting that he had never had because he didn't participate in college and go through all of that. And it was also you know, this
was the moment of player empowerment. Okay, he took over his own rights and with that, as the most powerful and best player in the NBA, he carried the entire Players Association and everybody else with him. Everybody was, you know, at his mercy and so he took all of the
slings and arrows for that. And you have to take into account the fans are hurt in Cleveland, and we could have done better for the fans in Cleveland, and we could have been more sensitive to the feelings that they were having of abandonment and of losing you know, their their homegrown Son. So yeah, there were areas where we certainly could have done better, but overall, looking back on that show, it was landmark, It was precedent setting, and it changed.
The whole paradigm.
Paradigm shifts didn't stop with just free agency announcements. The whole NBA model had shifted. Suddenly, even the best player in the sport playing for an organization closest to his hometown could leave for another organization and possibly plan ahead for that to happen, reaching across the country, across the continent to select new superstar teammates, then choosing the organization best suited to house them. All that was new, and
it was a start. Contrast to the Chicago bulls archetype went it with Michael Jordan as the clear best player and do it for the organization that drafted you. This Miami Heat collection was all already starting to feel unfair, unnecessary,
even for a player of Lebron's caliber. Then, with less than twenty four hours to digest what just happened to NBA basketball, and while most people outside of Scorn Cleveland were still fully forming their opinions on the matter, the Heat and their news signees would do something that would spread insufferable thoughts to the rest of the country.
They celebrated not one championship, not lebron tell us about.
That, not two, not three, not four, not five.
James, Wade, and Boss were all in Miami, both to party at a South Florida nightclub into the early morning on July ninth, and to rejoice with fans inside American Airlines Arena for a presentation and interview. Everywhere inside and outside the arena, fans held signs with the three superstars pictured and a slogan that played off President Barack Obama's two thousand and eight campaign slogan yes we can reading
Yes we Did. After what seemed like hours of fans gathering in the arena to a constant buzz of excitement and random chance, the Miami Heats three game changing free agents signings were brought onto the stage from a platform underneath. Bosh's reaction upon seeing the crowd was to let out a roar that would become his signature celebratory move in Miami. He soaked it all in, not even considering the consequences at the time.
Neither did the heat.
Frankly, because that party wasn't planned to announce all three of those players. It wasn't put together in less than twenty four hours. It was put together weeks earlier to announce the signing of Wade. That wouldn't have felt anything like this did. All that was missing in this celebration in the minds of critics were actual Larry O'Brien championship trophies for what was such a premature celebration. You want to know if people were assuming too much success once
these three joint forces. Hip hop artist and a regular at Big Miami Heat games, Flow Rida, dropped a song called we already won right after the announcements.
We already what. They don't neither play norball game.
Man, you say, it was a night intended just for Miami to celebrate something that just doesn't happen to this city, at least not in terms of sports, and in that moment, the Heat's players were in a bubble of support. Still in the clouds over the previous twenty some hours of celebration for Bosh, the regrets were there, but certainly not immediately. Bosh spoke with JJ Reddick about that night on his Old Man in the Three podcast.
I've always wanted to ask one of you guys, do you guys ever regret or have you ever talked about doing the victory parade?
Uh?
Before you guys ever played a game together when you guys all came out on stage, like, was that a mistake in retrospect? Was maybe that brought a little bit of that animosity on you.
Can look at it. Yeah, yeah, the animosity totally one hundred percent. But people have to understand we didn't organize that. If they said, Yo, we're signing JJ Reddick tomorrow and it's twenty thousand people there, you're not going to be like, nah, let's just yo. No, hey, pull the plug. No, we're not doing this. You're not going to do that. We went right along with everything that was going on, and I just found out that the only reason that stage was there is because I think I forgot who had
a concert. Somebody had a concert. Was in between concerts. They were doing three days or something like that, a three day stretch, so the stage was still there.
So we got there.
They're like, yo, yeah, but come on bro, They like Yo, we get there, They're like, Yo, look we got the stage. You guys coming up right here. I'm like, oh my god, it's like your dreams coming true.
You know.
With that said, we did not empathize or even consider. It was like Miami was a bubble bro. We didn't think of anything outside. We were just like stage hell yeah, interview nailed it. I mean, well it yeah bro, he you know, went right. It was just bro thing to think parties legendary, you know what I mean. We're living out of a hotel, you.
Know, it was.
It was just crazy, man. It was just a crazy time. And then about two days after all that stuff happened, that's when the smoke cleared and we kind of figured like, oh, they didn't like that.
Actually, there was still a slight delay before Bosh could watch his dreams come true the way a rock star would in his first headlining tour for one. Basketball normally needs five guys on the court at any given time, and these three needed some teammates.
They all wanted to.
Play with heat fixture and champion you Donnis Haslm as well. HASLM was a coveted free agent at the time, and it received a healthy offer from the Denver Nuggets, who featured another good friend of James and Wade's, Carmelo Anthony A Miami native and loyal to his corps.
Haslam was actually.
Heading to Miami's arena to eventually tell the Heats front office personnel that he'd be taking the deal from Denver and moving on for Miami because the organization didn't have enough money left under the salary cap structure to resign him. Then he got a call from his agent, the late Henry Thomas, who was also Bosh and Wade's agent. Thomas told him when he arrived at the arena to sit in his car for about thirty minutes while he sorted
some things out. As it turned out, Wade had reached out and tried to figure out how much money the three main players would have to give up in order for the team to resign. HASLM team owner Mickey Harrison, general manager Andy Ellisburg, and team president pat Riley were all in the building trying to hash out the numbers on the day of the celebration.
Here's Tim Reynolds again.
One of the reasons why the party started so late. They're upstairs and either Mickey or Andy's office and they're all hashing out the money. Because you donnas had the Denver offer on the table. They were figuring out how much UD would leave on the table, and he left fourteen million. I think Denver offered him thirty four and Miami Miami could only come up with twenty. So they're all giving money back to do this, do this, do this. We're gonna get this. We're gonna get this, We're gonna
do this. Dwayne gave back a little bit more than Lebron and Chris. They all work it out. They put on their their white Heat uniforms. They're going down to arena level to start this party. Finally, and somebody, I assume it was Andy, realized that Chris had not signed everything that he needed to sign. This starts mass chaos and the party is now delayed again, so they can run the paper down to Chris so he can initial whatever form he didn't initial, because you know, the Heat
do it all by the book. Andy is very particular about the order of which things are signed and all that, and for good reason. That's why he's the best at what he does. And then and only then after they got Chrystal, like you know, put the paper up on a wall and scribble whatever you have to scribble on it. Then it was official. And then and only then put the party stuff.
Haslam giving up millions to stay with his hometown was just the added fervor this gathering needed, he said. He immediately knew it was the right choice. Here's Eudonis.
Everybody got their own things that they searching for. But if your why doesn't align with my why, I can't be in the locker room with you.
You know, so I understood that.
Okay, now it's party times for everyone outside of Miami. Those sounds were indicative of an overly brash, unnecessarily talented trio saying way too much, far too soon.
The way, we're gonna challenge each other to get better on practice once the game start.
I mean it's gonna be easy.
I mean, but we also know youth pre Kings came down here to win championships, not one championships. Lebron tell us about that, not two, not three.
Not four, Lebron counting his rings before they hatched. Were words that would be repeated so often they'd become the rallying cry for those looking to taunt heat players, particularly James himself.
Not five, not six, not seven.
The celebration was not just universally considered over the top, obnoxious but entirely premature, and it set up even more of a disconnect between Lebron and his fans. In that moment, inside that Miami bubble, the joy coming from those three players and the fans celebrating with them appeared as genuine as it.
Gets in its own way.
It was actually perfect, at least according to someone like Levittard who truly knows Miami.
It seemed to me that it would be a whole lot more fun to win with your friends than with people who weren't your friends, So why wouldn't they get together? But every time I raised it as a question in
the months preceding the free agency, everyone laughed. That may laughed at the idea of it because it hadn't been done and people couldn't consider or fathom the notion of what ended up happening, which it wasn't merely Lebron James coming here, but it was Lebron James coming here and very much taking a little brother kind of place on the team, allowing Dwayne Wade to lead it, allowing Dwayne
Wade to be the centerpiece of the whole thing. It was unusual to see even as it happened, and I'm not sure I could believe that it was happening even as it happened, because I just remember some of the specifics up Dwayne was introduced last Dwayne's team, Dwayne City, Dwayne's Team, Dwayne City, and I'm like, this other guy's better than Dwayne. Like this other guy is coming in and he's more famous than Dwayne, and he's coming in here, not necessarily for a subservient role, but something a lot
different than the one that he was used to. All of a sudden, you had the most interesting sports team of our lifetimes, of my career working in this market, You, all of a sudden had a team that was disliked by the country and turned us against the world into something that made an appearance very early on with that cartoonish stage entrance where they were celebrating the championship before they had dribbled a basketball.
Lebron On behalf.
Of all of Josh Florida, thank you him, welcome. How's us feel where he's uniform?
It feels right, it feels right. And to be in this position to where does he uniform?
Every single night, We're gonna make the world. No, not just this lead, We're gonna work.
We're gonna make the world know that the heat is back.
Let's get it done, man, Let's get this thing done.
I just thought it was uniquely cartoonishly comically Miami. Just loud, colorful, fun, funny, ridiculous.
Just absurd.
The whole thing was absurd. You had the celebration of a lifetime and all it was was three guys backstage, right before the crane lifted them up there signing the paperwork to finalize that they were actually going to get together and change what would be the next ten years of that sport.
Maybe not ten years, as you might have guessed from the title of the pod. Four years is what Lebron lasted Miami, But what happened in those four years became one of the most intriguing eras in NBA history, with so many historic moments and unforgettable details that you're bound to learn something new revisiting them. The bump was absolutely a message.
I was their courtside and I saw a battery land in front of me.
Oh, they have made it mad.
It was an incredible pressure cooker for those guys.
There was no camaraderie, there was no cohesion, there was no raw Ross beat.
It was like when the Americans beat the Soviets at Lake Plaster.
As that ball left my fingers, it just felt like it floated.
This is surreal, Like we're about to win the NBA Championship.
One title would not have been enough, not.
Comparison to the Beatles, but it was like a hysteria that I had never been a part of in my ten years in the league.
When I found out that, you know, we got him in Miami, he I was super excited, but also I was like, he's a genius.
Where else would you go?
It's Miami.
Four Years of Heat is a production of iHeartRadio and the NBA