On a recent episode of “Jalen Rose: Renaissance Man,” Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade gave his authentic opinion on if he believes the Heat would have been title contenders had superstar LeBron James stayed in Miami in 2014.
“I don’t know,” Wade responded when asked how many more championships he thinks they would have won if James stayed in Miami. “I don’t know. That Golden State team was right on our heels. I really don’t know. I wasn’t in my prime anymore. I was outside of my prime about 2014. So, that would have made it hard for us to really win if I was still going to be a big part of it. Chris Bosh not knowing what he was going to be dealing with later, he was in his prime and LeBron was in his, but I wasn’t in mine anymore. And it would have made it tough to keep going, so I would have really had to find health in a big way very quickly to keep competing at that level and because my body was going through so much.”
The Heat shocked the basketball universe in 2010 when Wade, Bosh and James all teamed up during free agency. The trio, headlined by James, still receives hate for joining forces.
While the Heat lost in the 2011 NBA Finals to the Dallas Mavericks, they strongly bounced back in the ensuing years. The Heat destroyed the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2012 NBA Finals, and they narrowly squeezed past the San Antonio Spurs in the 2013 NBA Finals.
However, the team ran out of juice as it got steamrolled by the Spurs in five games during the 2014 NBA Finals. Wade’s health significantly declined, and the Heat’s supporting cast withered with age.
James opted to leave Miami to go back to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the free agency period of 2014. The Cavaliers faced the Warriors in four consecutive finals from 2015 to 2018 as sharpshooter Stephen Curry started his dominance in the NBA.
Furthermore, the Warriors added supernova Kevin Durant during the 2016 offseason. The Cavs’ only series win against the Warriors during that four-year stretch came in 2016.
As for Bosh, he played his last basketball in 2016 and was forced to retire early, as health issues sadly walloped his career. Wade retired from the NBA in 2019.