There was a time in the early 2010s when New York was this close to having the superteam of everyone’s fantasies. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade Wade, Chris Bosh were reportedly on the verge of joining Carmelo Anthony on New York Knicks. However, they ended up with the Miami Heat. Instead of Melo, D-Wade stuck with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller and got Bron and Bosh in the bargain. Many people involved in this near miss have different versions of this story. Gilbert Arenas rehashed it and blamed the Knicks head honcho, James Dolan, for skipping the team of a lifetime.

“When Dwyane Wade, [Chris] Bosh, and LeBron [James] decided to team up, they was not playing in some one city. So they can all be fresh. So they were planning on going to New York together,” Arenas revealed on Gil’s Arena. “And what happened is because they didn’t tell anyone, Dolan made a mistake by paying Amar’e Stoudemire. They [James, Bosh, Wade] didn’t want to play with Amar’ Stoudemire because they had their own goddamn Big 3.”

The result – Knicks’ loss was Heat’s gain. “Because New York f**ked, they call Micky [Arison] and say, ‘Hey, Micky, this is what we want to do. Can you make it happen?’” Where the Knicks owner let down the trio, the Miami Heat owner Micky Arison came through. The structuring back then was what Arenas emphasized on which would win Miami two championships. “If you knew what was going on back then, you would’ve known New York dropped the ball.”

The scenario according to Arenas was the Knicks tried to lure Mike Miller who was in this Big 3’s circle with a $60 million offer. He rejected it to join Miami for $30 million and play alongside James. Heat Culture-for-lifer, UD rejected an expensive deal and took a paycut to accomodate James in Miami. The Flash stayed Wade County and Bosh came along thereby constructing Miami’s superteam.

LeBron, D-Wade and Bosh were planning on going to the Knicks 🤯@GilsArenaShow pic.twitter.com/cHjDoFJf7U

— Underdog (@Underdog) June 12, 2024