Getty Forward Chris Bosh #1 of the Miami Heat with teammates Dwyane Wade #3 and LeBron James #6
Perhaps no team has changed the NBA more than the Miami Heat when they formed the big three. The move that saw LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade all teaming up in South Beach ushered in a new era of the NBA, the player empowerment era. To some, talk of player empowerment brings a negative connotation. Any time a star player asks to be traded or leaves a team in free agency, those people lament about player empowerment. But what LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh did in Miami to use their power and team up was just as revolutionary as it was unpopular.
Even NBA legends disagreed with the move insisting that they would have never teamed up with an opposing All-Star because they would prefer to beat them rather than join them. A stance that is hard to believe. When growing up playing basketball on the blacktop, picking teams, you would always pick the best available. You never say, “oh, that’s the obvious best player, but I’d rather beat him than play with him.” That just doesn’t happen, so the lament within NBA circles on the subject has never had much credence. However, despite that the Heat big three became one of the most hated and most talked about teams in NBA history.
In a recent appearance featuring Dwyane Wade on an episode of J.J. Redick’s The Old Man & The Three podcast, Wade spoke about why the Heat was so hated during that era and how other great teams in NBA history weren’t criticized like Miami was.
Dwyane Wade on the Criticism of the Big Three
In the interview, the Heat legend Dwyane Wade noted that while they were one of the most criticized championships in the NBA, and that their situation wasn’t much different than some of the other iconic teams in NBA history.
“If you think about it, no one gives backlash to any championships that Larry Bird won, that Magic Johnson won, that Michael Jordan won,” Wade said. “… You don’t win championships without playing with other guys that are great, first of all,” Wade said.
“If you think about it, no one gives backlash to any championships that Larry Bird won, that Magic Johnson won, that Michael Jordan won… You don’t win championships without playing with other guys.”
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Wade also went on to speculate why this Miami Heat team and group of players they had got the hate they did in comparison to other championship teams in NBA history.
Wade: “We knew that some of the hate was because of our skin color”
In a move that birthed the player empowerment era in the NBA, Wade suggests it was seeing black players use their power that caused the division and hate that they were subject to.
“We knew that some of the hate was because of our skin color,” he claimed. “Because of being Black men and deciding to control the fate of our careers. … So, when we had the power, when we had the moment, we took it. But some of the hate came because we were three Black guys who decided and changed the way that the NBA probably would ever be because of that decision,” Waid said.