{"id":105386,"date":"2024-11-06T15:12:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T20:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=105386"},"modified":"2024-11-06T15:12:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T20:12:53","slug":"dwyane-wade-lebron-james-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/06\/dwyane-wade-lebron-james-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Icon Reveals He Nearly Left the Team Before LeBron James Joined"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wadedw01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dwyane Wade<\/a> has talked plenty about the time he, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/boshch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Bosh<\/a> formed the Big Three in Miami and wreaked havoc across the league. Yet, up until now, he hasn\u2019t talked about how he almost left the Heat before James called him on the phone.<\/p>\n<p>On the latest episode of <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6oMUPGG96aY\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The OGs Show<\/a>, hosted by Wade\u2019s former teammates, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hasleud01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Udonis Haslem<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/millemi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Miller<\/a>, Wade dropped a truth bomb about 2010 free agency.<\/p>\n<h2>Heat Icon Dwyane Wade Reveals He Nearly Left the Team Before LeBron James Joined<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking with his former teammates, both of whom were on the Heat\u2019s 2012 and 2013 championship rosters, Wade talked about the famous free agency of 2010, saying the following,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI was actually leaving Miami at that time. I didn&#8217;t think that nobody out there that [the Heat] could get was going to get us to that [championship] level\u2026 For me, my hometown team could win. So I was like, \u2018Man, I&#8217;m going back home. I&#8217;m going to Chicago. I played seven years here, I won a championship, It&#8217;s time.&#8217;\u2026 But I got that call, man. I got that call from number six.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, Wade would eventually end up in his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/06\/15\/dwyane-wade-player-option-remain-bulls\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">hometown<\/a>, six years later. But that was after he and LeBron won two <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/30\/dwyane-wade-miami-statue\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">titles<\/a> together in Miami.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dwyane Wade was almost headed to Chicago, then Lebron made the call \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>The OGs x Dwyane Wade out now here: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GQl7uuA4Bo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/GQl7uuA4Bo<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZwmManwxvu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ZwmManwxvu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The OGs Show (@theOGsShow) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theOGsShow\/status\/1853877846332023153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Could Wade Win in Chicago?<\/h3>\n<p>At the time, the Heat had three legitimate competitors in the East, the Chicago Bulls, and Boston Celtics, and the Orlando Magic.\u00a0The Bulls, led by youngest MVP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rosede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick Rose<\/a>, won 62 games the first year Wade and James played in Miami. The two teams met in the Conference Finals, with the Heat eventually winning 4-1.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the Bulls had a great team. Led by Rose, they also had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/n\/noahjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joakim Noah<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/denglu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luol Deng<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/boozeca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlos Boozer<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gibsota01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Taj Gibson<\/a> on the team. Add in Wade, and they would have solved their biggest issue, which was scoring besides Rose.<\/p>\n<h3>Wade and LeBron Wanted Bosh<\/h3>\n<p>The three-time NBA champion also talked about how he and LeBron were on the same page about the third guy they wanted on their team. After LeBron and Wade got on the phone for the first time, they started talking about the third star they would love to bring in. Wade revealed,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe already knew the other player if it was three who we would like to play with. His name was Christopher Bosh. Chris was represented by the same agent, Henry Thomas, at the time. And so, we just kind of like Chris know we are having this meeting, let\u2019s talk about some stuff. We had this secret meeting and it was real talk\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dwyane Wade reveals how Chris Bosh became part of the Big 3 \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>The OGs x Dwyane Wade out now here: <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GQl7uuA4Bo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/GQl7uuA4Bo<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yAFt7XZdTJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/yAFt7XZdTJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The OGs Show (@theOGsShow) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theOGsShow\/status\/1853933321429868782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Could the Bulls Pulled Wade + Bosh?<\/h3>\n<p>In the summer of 2010, the Bulls had enough cap space to sign two max players, and they knew they had no chance at LeBron. But their plan was to get Wade and Bosh to come in and continue building on the core they had. They prepared for the summer of 2010 by letting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gordobe01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ben Gordon<\/a> go in free agency in 2009 and then traded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomaty01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyrus Thomas<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/salmojo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Salmons<\/a> to Milwaukee at the deadline for expiring contracts.<\/p>\n<p>When the time came, they made a great pitch to Wade. But as history shows, there is always a better pitch. If the Bulls managed to trade Deng and get LeBron, Wade, and Bosh, that would have been a different story. But that remains a \u201cWhat If\u201d question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dwyane Wade has talked plenty about the time he, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh formed the Big Three in Miami and wreaked havoc across the league. Yet, up until now, he hasn\u2019t talked about how he almost left the Heat before James called him on the phone. On the latest episode of The OGs Show, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":105467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,8,16,62],"tags":[275,95,296,97,38,347,673,2177],"class_list":["post-105386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-bulls","category-heat","category-nba","tag-chris-bosh","tag-derrick-rose","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-joakim-noah","tag-lebron-james","tag-mike-miller","tag-taj-gibson","tag-udonis-haslem"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}