Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade recently said the Heat Big 3 wasn’t the best Big 3 ever. Here’s why he was not only deadly honest, but absolutely correct.
The Miami Heat will forever be apart of NBA history for as long as the professional basketball league is in existence. While the team has played host to some of the most fantastic basketball players and minds the league has ever seen, they have also helped to spawn some of the greatest and most iconic moments that have ever occurred in the NBA.
When you look at names like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Hardaway, and Alonzo Mourning and truly just to name a few, the rich basketball history immediately starts to resonate with you. When you think about the many championships in a short existence and the eras in the NBA that the Miami Heat are responsible for, that also is fitting of praise.
One of those eras, the Miami Heat’s Big 3 era to be specific, is the subject of conversation here. Recently, the Miami Heat’s greatest of all time in Dwyane Wade took on the debate that asks if the Heat’s Big 3 are the greatest big three of all time and specifically relative to that of the Chicago Bulls’ during the 90s and the more recent run of the Golden State Warriors.
Wade’s answer was this. It was that they were not the greatest, but they were among the best. Simply put, he’s right, but here is why.
When you are talking about the greatest player to ever touch a basketball in Michael Jordan and a top 25 player of all time in Scottie Pippen, no matter who you put alongside them, it will be the top Big 3 of all time.
You are talking about two of the greatest NBA players of all time and specifically the single greatest player in Jordan. Again, anyone would still qualify them as the greatest but if you were talking someone like Dennis Rodman as the third, you could definitely forget it, as they were in a different stratosphere as a trio.
The Miami Heat had similar circumstances, with the second greatest player of all time in LeBron James and another top 25 player of all time in Flash, however, the Heat’s pair lands on the wrong side of both of those comparisons. LeBron ranks second to Michael Jordan and Dwyane Wade ranks behind Scottie Pippen in the all-time hierarchy. No need to use Chris Bosh and Dennis Rodman here, just to throw a third duo out there, because it’s already settled.
When thinking about the Golden State Warriors, they really don’t qualify here. They were a Big 4 at their peak.
You can believe or say what you will, but Draymond Green was definitely a big part of it all after Kevin Durant arrived, but he was also the third guy before Kevin Durant arrived. With KD, Draymond, Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson, they weren’t a true Big 3. Either way though, I would still take the Miami Heat’s Big 3 over any combination of three of those main Golden State players.
The Miami Heat may not have had the best trio, but hey, only Jordan’s surpasses them. You can’t ever be mad at anything basketball-related where you are only behind Michael Jordan, you just can’t be. Regardless of all of that, we are grateful to have had the second greatest Big 3 that the NBA has ever seen.