ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst revealed that the Miami Heat not winning the Executive of the Year Award after signing Chris Bosh and LeBron James to form the Big 3 is one of the “pettiest things” he’s ever seen in the NBA.
“One of the pettiest things I’ve ever seen in my 20-something years covering the NBA was the Heat not winning Executive of the Year the year they signed Bosh and LeBron,” Windhorst said. “Technically, they tied with the [Chicago] Bulls that year for Executive of the Year. But really, the Bulls got more votes because John Paxson got votes and Gar Forman got votes. And if they combined those votes together, the Bulls got more votes. I’m not sure why they split it, probably because it would have been embarrassing.”
While Miami may not have gotten the sole recognition for luring two of the game’s biggest stars at the time to South Beach, the Heat ended up winning plenty of hardware during the time that James, Bosh and Dwyane Wade shared the court in Miami.
Not only did the Heat reach the NBA Finals in four straight seasons, but they also won two NBA titles in the 2011-12 season and the 2012-13 campaign. The addition of James helped the Heat get over the top and win their second and third titles with Wade on the roster, cementing the Heat guard as one of the greatest players in franchise history.
During the 2010-11 season (right after James and Bosh signed), the Bulls did finish with the best record in the NBA, winning 62 games behind an MVP season from Derrick Rose.
Unfortunately, a knee injury ended up derailing Rose’s career shortly after that season, and the Bulls never ended up reaching an NBA Finals with the core that they had built around him.
The Heat didn’t have James for long, as he went back to the Cleveland Cavaliers after four seasons in Miami, but they did have a ton of success during his tenure, winning at least 65.9 percent of their regular season games in each season.
It appears – based on Windhorst’s comments – that the rest of the league wasn’t exactly thrilled that Miami built a Big 3, altering the landscape of the NBA in the future.
James’ decision to join the Heat may have helped spark other star players changing teams, such as when Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors after the 2015-16 season.
All in all, Miami would likely much rather have two NBA titles than an Executive of the Year award to brag about as a franchise.
