1. Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and Lebron James
They will be a package deal in the annals of history, so too shall Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James be here. The Big 3 were a group of NBA superstars that not only took the league by storm to change the face and operating practices of the NBA, but they changed the sports landscape in the process as well, by further solidifying the era of player empowerment.
Do I have to say more? Probably not, as you know their resume, but why not?
Acquiring all three of these superstars in one summer was amazing and that’s not even the best part, they all took less money to make it happen. Those Miami teams changed this decade for better or for worse, depending on the way you look at it.
This signing was bigger than basketball. It was an iconic team for the game and the culture, something you didn’t then and don’t have a lot of in today’s game with team turnover. Think famous basketball monikers such as the Badboy Pistons, Showtime Lakers, Michael and Scottie’s Bulls, or Bird’s Celtics, that type of thing.
These signings would lead to the first Small ball team of the decade to play that way full time and actually win championships playing that way full time. For my money, this is the best signing of the decade and although it may be a bit of a cheat for this list, in particular, it changed the landscape of today’s league and made player empowerment a real thing.
The Miami Heat still have titles left to win, a ton of them hopefully. That means that there will be more great names to add to this list in the future. Hopefully, hosting those names leads to hoisting the next Miami Heat Larry O’Brien Trophy sometime soon.