Inside 'The Decision': Miami's coup was a 'surprise' built on long-coveted goal of James, Wade and Bosh
Brian Windhorst
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- During a rally for Miami Heat fans Friday night, Chris Bosh said he'd been talking with new teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade about the moment for months.
It was a slip, which some -- including Bosh -- quickly noticed. Bosh's statement hinted there was a long-standing plan in place to gather in Miami. That potentially would not only be against NBA rules, but also poor taste -- considering Bosh and James were supposedly completely focused on the task at hand with teams in Toronto and Cleveland.
Bosh quickly revised the statement and said they'd been talking about it for "days." But it was hardly correct. The truth is James, Bosh and Wade had been plotting this for years.
That won't be comforting for Cavaliers fans who are still reeling from what many considered James' stunning departure. For those deep in the process, however, it was hardly stunning. It was part of a complex master plan that was never guaranteed, but the trio's heartfelt desire for much of the past four years.
Now that the move has been made, the veil of secrecy is being lifted to a degree as people begin to talk. Or, in some cases, brag. The Plain Dealer talked to numerous sources to piece together a picture of how James ended up in Miami.
It is still a somewhat fuzzy image; James and his close friends and business associates may never tell the whole story. But here are the broad strokes:
The seeds of the massive move were planted back the summer of 2006 after Bosh, James and Wade finished up their third seasons. Established all-stars and clearly the future of the league, the three were part of a bonding effort led by USA Basketball to revamp and re-energize the national team after the disappointing 2004 bronze medal.
The three played together for the first time that summer at the World Championships. For the first week they were sequestered without family or friends in Sapporo, Japan, in an attempt to build chemistry. But it wasn't just the players -- working as an intern for Team USA and getting to know the players was Nick Arison, the son of Heat billionaire owner Micky Arison.
Now, not ironically, Nick Arison is a rising executive with the Heat. He was part of the team that recruited all three players this summer.
Already close as members of the same draft class, the Team USA experience strengthened the relationship. Even before the team gathered in Las Vegas to prepare for the World Championships that summer, the three had talked at length about playing for that team. After a poor experience at the Olympics in 2004, they had to recruit each other to get the top players to try the process again.
That same July, the co-op took on another role when all three decided to extend their contracts with their teams. They couldn't all become unrestricted free agents until 2007 anyway under the rules, so the smart play was for them to extend with the Raptors, Cavs and Heat respectively.
But with some of the league's high-profile older stars perceived as stuck in long-term contracts with struggling teams -- Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett eventually demanded trades out of unhappy situations around that time -- the three decided to go for a shorter contract.
Olympics, sources say Chris Bosh and LeBron James had frequently shared their common desire to play together with Dwyane Wade for an NBA franchise. There were already several teams -- most notably the New York Knicks but including the Miami Heat -- gutting their rosters in order to free up salary cap money for the summer of 2010.
After talking amongst themselves, James, Bosh and Wade decided to accept three-year extensions. It would make them all unrestricted free agents at the same time in 2010. For players on maximum contracts, becoming an unrestricted free agent after just seven years in the NBA is rare. But it would put them all in position to potentially team up that year, a fact that was not lost on them.
In the ensuing years, four important events happened that were major contributors leading to their union in 2010.
One was a very positive and emotional summer in 2008 in China, where the trio were part of the gold medal-winning Team USA. They proved they could play effectively together. For the most part, they checked their egos, with Wade even deciding to come off the bench.
Second, Los Angeles-based management company Creative Artists Agency decided to get into the basketball agent business. Seeing how influential they could be in the summer of 2010, CAA bought the agencies that represented James, Bosh and Wade. Bringing them all under one roof gave CAA huge control of the market and took down any barriers the three would have with negotiations.
Third, the recession hit and NBA owners started tightening their spending, a trend that would last for two years. The result was a bubble of salary cap space that would eventually result in giving numerous teams large blocks of cash in 2010.
Fourth, the struggling New York Knicks launched a plan in the fall of 2008 to clear off enough cap space to sign two maximum level free agents in an effort to recruit James to New York. Though he never said so directly, James began openly flirting with the thought. Other teams, many of whom where struggling, saw the opening and hatched the same plan.
That included the Heat, who were in the midst of a large-scale rebuilding process after a 15-win season. They had won the title in 2006, but made several trades that eventually caught up with them. With Wade already on the team, team president Pat Riley decided to begin his own cap manipulation, even if it limited what the Heat could do with Wade during two of his prime years.
The Knicks got most of the attention for positioning themselves for James, especially when they traded away their best players for pennies on the dollar in an effort to clear the books. But Riley was just as passively aggressive in not spending, at one point last summer getting into a public battle with Wade, who was frustrated at the lack of roster additions.
It was a risk to mess with Wade as he headed for his own free agency, but Riley had been watching and doing background research. He knew the three wanted to play together and he knew he had a glamour destination to offer, a history of success and Wade already on the team. He crunched the numbers over and over and thought he could get close to clearing three maximum salary spots -- or at least get close.
He didn't quite get there, but close enough to pull off the major score. In addition to the weather and the city's attractions for young rich athletes, Riley knew the lack of a state income tax in Florida could help him sell it.
Riley really put the plan into action last November. During a Cavs visit to Miami, Riley arranged a get together with Michael Jordan and James. Jordan, who was in town to do some Nike work with Wade, at the time did not own a majority of the Bobcats.
During the meeting, Riley talked to James about how more modern players should pay homage to Jordan. Riley had always led this effort, retiring Jordan's No. 23 in the rafters at AmericanAirlines Arena even though Jordan -- of course -- never played in Miami.
The Cavs knew about it and while it seemed like it could be classic tampering, they decided not to make an issue of it. The meeting -- technically -- wasn't about free agency. Only, of course it was.
That night James and Wade staged an another strong individual battle. But the Cavs won when the Heat didn't have enough down the stretch, a common problem with Miami's roster last season. After the game, and after seeing Jordan and Riley sitting together courtside, James made an emotional statement right on the court that he was going to ditch jersey No. 23 out of respect to Jordan. In fact, he felt all players should stop wearing No. 23.
It was controversial and got headlines. Riley didn't care so much about the statement but how his conversation obviously influenced James. Without much doubt, it gave Riley confidence that he could win James over by playing to his emotions when it came time for free agency. Riley became more dedicated than ever before to trying his grand plan of getting all three stars to South Florida with the poaching of James being the grand prize.
That was why he was so amped up before his presentation to James in Cleveland a week ago. He packed up his seven championship rings, had his salary cap specialists create displays to show how Florida taxes could save James money and brought along Alonzo Mourning to make an emotional pitch about how the team backed him up as he recovered from a kidney transplant.
It was also made known to James that the Heat would take care of his friends much in the same way as the Cavs. There would be special treatment at the arena, changing practice and travel schedules to allow for moneymaking late-night parties in various cities and perhaps even hiring a James associate for a high-paying position in the organization.
This was nothing knew for Riley, he made the same accommodations for Shaquille O'Neal and, to a lesser extent, Wade in recent years.
Riley was so focused that he paced the halls outside James' offices while waiting for James to arrive for the meeting. The meeting went so well and so long that the Heat took up some of the Los Angeles Clippers' scheduled time with James.
But Riley may not have even needed to slam dunk the presentation. He already had a huge advantage working long before he even got to Cleveland.
As was their plan four years earlier and was discussed more deeply in 2008, Bosh, Wade and James had been talking. Unlike Bosh or James, Wade took the step of actually recruiting free agents to his team. Riley's efforts were more successful than the Knicks, and Miami had the most salary cap space.
Getting all three together was only really possible in Miami. Wade pushed the topic. Despite being discouraged by Commissioner David Stern and perhaps breaking tampering rules again, Wade flew with Bosh to Akron to meet at James' house in the last week of June. Still under contract with the Heat, Wade got the other two to the brink of a deal to join up.
All the players still met with teams just to make sure they wanted Miami. Both Wade and James were interested also in Chicago, where there was a chance two of them could match up and play with rising star Derrick Rose. But Wade stayed strong to Riley's plan and kept tugging on James and Bosh.
Though many thought James would seriously consider Knicks and Nets, part-owned by friend Jay-Z, they were never in his top two. The way it looks now, the Cavs may not have been in the top two for much of the process. James did talk with Bosh about the chance of playing in Cleveland, but Bosh resisted and James was intrigued by teaming up with his friends even more than he was attracted to staying home.
The Bulls' chances for James were diminished for two central reasons. One was that Wade wasn't willing to go to his own hometown. The other was the Bulls made it clear that James' friends would not be given the privileges they were given in Cleveland, or the high-paying jobs.
Chicago didn't give Jordan special treatment when he was leading them to six titles, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf wasn't about to give it to James. In addition, Rose -- who often talked to the media about his respect for James -- did not openly welcome his arrival and instead campaigned for other free agents, especially Joe Johnson. Soon, the Bulls were out.
With the weather, his friends and South Florida's glamour pulling him to Miami and Cleveland offering just his hometown and hope for that much-coveted title, James was gone.
Despite his comments that he went back-and-forth on the decision, it appears the Heat were always the leaders in his mind. That's what he chose, after four years of buildup, breaking Cavs fans' hearts.
