And how did you really feel at first about The Big Three?
Tachauer: Since the latest trend is to expose old tweets, I may as well go ahead and out myself right here: I hated The Big Three the first year that they came together. I was pissed the Bulls couldn’t lure LeBron James over and I knew that as good as Rose and company were at the time, they couldn’t continuously get past Miami. But then, within less than a year’s time, I found myself completely enamored with the entire organization, and ended up jumping ship (sorry not sorry).
Johnson: Just two years prior, the Heat were a 15-win team. Seeing that Michael Beasley wasn’t the difference maker that everyone thought he’d be, bringing the collective power of Chris Bosh, James and Wade to compliment Mario Chalmers was one of the most exciting free agency moves I’ve seen. All joking aside, I loved the fact that Miami was going to be the most hated team in the league.
Rahming: I was ecstatic. The summer of 2010 was literally the best summer of my life. Sounds a bit basic huh? My dad and I sat on his couch in South Florida and tuned in to ESPN to watch the most infamous show of the year: ’The Decision’. When the ”I’m taking my talents to South Beach” was first uttered, we were hype as H-E-double hockey sticks. Finally, our team was back to relevancy.
Keaton: I loved it. I wasn’t too sure about Bosh, but I grew to love his game as a player. After watching everyone work together a bit during the 2008 Olympics, I had great optimism that they’d figure it out and become a force.
Eyrich: At first, of course I was excited that the roster would have so much talent. But in reality, the thing that I was the most excited for was that Wade was still on the team. Nothing would have hurt worse than seeing The Big Three form on any other team.
Nurse: I did not think putting the Big Three would even happen. I was expecting Amar’e Stoudemire and maybe Rudy Gay. James and Bosh came as a surprise—and although I was not a fan of either, I thought it would come with instant wins. That made me all for it.
Ebrahim: The crazy part was I used to tell people a year earlier that the Heat would land a combination of James, Bosh, Wade, Carmelo Anthony or Stoudemire. So when president Pat Riley finally pulled it off, I sat there and flexed my GM muscles. Those four years were probably the most exciting seasons I’ve ever watched as a fan. That’s when I started to watch/follow the NBA on a nightly basis.
Ramos: I was excited. The formation of The Big Three immediately made the Heat championship contenders again and everyone knew it… fun times.
Shofner: I wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan when the move occurred. While, they weren’t by any means the first “super team,” they were perhaps the first to combine a lot of superstar players that were in their primes. To me, it was something in the vain of ring chasing and a lack of competitiveness that I think the league is still lacking. As a traditionalist, I agree with the mentality of the players from past eras. These guys wouldn’t join their friends because they wanted to beat them and prove they were the best. I think from that point forward, it made the rest of the league adapt, and I think the current climate of the league is still suffering from that seismic shift and made it possible for only a handful of teams to be legitimate contenders every year. I understand the rationale from the players and the team that do these things, but it feels like the league in generally is a bit watered down due to this.