Pat Riley Drops a Bomb: The Big 3 Heat Could’ve Won 6 Titles If LeBron Stayed!

When the Big 3 of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade led the Miami Heat, the team contended for NBA titles year in and year out. Miami made the NBA Finals in every single season they were together, and the Heat came out on top in two of those championship series in 2012 and 2013.

Longtime Heat team president Pat Riley seems to think that Miami’s Big 3 could have captured more than two championships if the trio played on the same team for a lengthier period of time.

“It didn’t upset me, but it hurt me that we couldn’t keep that team together because I think it was a five- or six-championship team,” Riley said of the Big 3 Heat. “I really do. If we could have kept them all together and stay healthy from that standpoint. But the nature of the game is what it is.”

For all that the Big 3 Heat achieved, they were only together for four seasons. The trio’s time as teammates came to an end not long after Miami was eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs in five games in the 2014 NBA Finals.

In the summer of 2014, James left the Heat in free agency and instead signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He spent the first seven seasons of his pro career with the Cavaliers, who drafted him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft.

But even if the Heat did convince James to re-sign with the team that summer, there still exist question marks regarding how long Miami would have remained a legitimate contender with the Big 3.

For one, Bosh retired from the NBA not all that long after James began his second stint in Cleveland. Thanks to a blood clotting condition, he called it quits on his pro career after he appeared in 53 games with the Heat in the 2015-16 season.

Additionally, Wade began to show signs of decline during the tail end of the Big 3 era. By the time James’ final season in Miami rolled around, his co-star was no longer the perennial All-NBA player he once was.

In the 2013-14 regular season, he averaged 19.0 points (the lowest scoring average since his rookie season at the time) along with 4.5 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.5 steals per contest. Wade also didn’t even spend the remainder of his NBA career with the Heat, as he joined the Chicago Bulls ahead of the 2016-17 campaign and had a cup of coffee with the Cleveland Cavaliers the following season as well.