Back in 2014, LeBron James made the decision to leave the Miami Heat in free agency and return home to Cleveland. In retrospect, it's a move that completely changed the Heat franchise.
And now, Dwyane Wade has finally broken his silence on the decision, saying that LeBron "100 percent" had his blessing with the move.
“I never even thought me and LeBron would be teammates first of all. It was never a dream of mine. I loved when we played against each other. We went at each other. When we got an opportunity to do that, it was special. When he was ready to go back home, he got my blessings 100%. He needed to go back home to win a championship for his city. A part of his legacy, he needed that."
In retrospect, it probably would've helped the franchise had he been more vocal about the issue as it was happening in real-time. Either way, he's not wrong here.
Dwyane Wade is right; LeBron James needed to leave Miami
As much as Wade is right, that doesn't mean that this decision really hurt the Heat. Miami fell into a state of limbo after losing LeBron. Sure, there were other factors that hurt the Heat, such as the declining health of Chris Bosh and Wade himself, but there's no question that LeBron's decision to leave in free agency was certainly the first big domino to fall against the Heat during that era.
Bosh's career would come to an end just two years later, and Wade would leave in free agency himself in 2016, too. The Heat had to endure some difficult times after that, until they gracefully fell upon Jimmy Butler in 2019.
Still, there's no question that the loss of LeBron during the 2014 offseason hurt the Heat more than most are willing to admit. Even after all these years, Pat Riley has been on record saying that LeBron's decision cut short what the Heat could've accomplished as a dynasty.
In fact, thinking back at some of the bigger moments in Heat history, LeBron's leaving in 2014 would certainly rank high in all-time "what if" moments for the franchise. Who knows what the next few years would have looked like for the Heat had LeBron stayed?
But even with the Bosh and Wade health issues, it would've been interesting to see how Riley (and the rest of the front office) could've continued to evolve the roster around LeBron.
Unfortunately, we'll never know. Even though LeBron probably made the right decision, it's still only natural to be curious about the "what if."
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