Arguably the greatest offseason in Miami Heat history came in 2010 when LeBron James and Chris Bosh decided to join forces with Dwyane Wade to form one of the NBA’s first modern Big 3s.
Immediately, the challenge became to fill out the squad with capable role players, and one of the role players they considered was forward Matt Barnes.
On a recent podcast appearance on NFL Hall of Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe’s podcast “Club Shay Shay,” Barnes says he was close to joining James and Miami.
“I was literally talking to Pat Riley and D. Wade, and they’re talking about we’re about to build something over here,” Barnes said. “There’s words of him [James] coming and there’s words of Bosh coming. It’s right up the free way for me and I’m literally having conversations with Pat Riley.”
However, another big-time NBA superstar — Kobe Bryant — got ahold of Barnes and prevented him from coming to the Heat by recruiting him to join his Los Angeles Lakers.
“He’s like it’s Kob,” Barnes said. “We start going back and forth, and he ask me what I’m doing. And I literally tell him I’m kind of back and forth, I’m talking to Miami right now. He’s like, ‘Nah f— Miami, you want to be a Laker.’ And I’m like hell yeah, and like four days later I was a Laker.”
Along with the Heat, the Lakers were the favorites to win the NBA championship during the 2010-11 season. However, L.A. fell well short, as it was swept in the second round of the playoffs. After that, the team slowly disintegrated due to old age and injury.
The Heat, meanwhile, would go through a painful but brief process of failing forward. After their painful loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals, they finally broke through and won it all in 2012 and 2013, giving James his first two championship rings.
It was a missed opportunity for Barnes, but he said he wouldn’t have traded those two titles for the opportunity to play with the Black Mamba.
The 6-foot-7 forward was known as a strong defender who wouldn’t back down when challenged or intimidated. Although the Heat had good depth at that position back then with players such as Shane Battier and Mike Miller, Barnes could’ve given them another option at the 3 who was a tougher customer.
After spending two years with the Lakers, Barnes was able to remain in Southern California by joining the Los Angeles Clippers, who were starting to build an exciting contender around Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Then, midway through the 2016-17 season, Barnes was waived by the Sacramento Kings, and he had the good fortune of getting picked up by the Golden State Warriors.
It was there that he finally won the world title.
