The Miami Heat were sitting pretty heading into the 2012 NBA Draft. They employed the most talented trio in all of basketball in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and were on the heels of winning that year’s NBA title after they defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.
The Heat could have feasibly added another star to their roster when they were on the clock with the No. 27 overall pick. After all, future Golden State Warriors defensive star Draymond Green was still on the board.
Though, according to Tim Hardaway, longtime Heat team president Pat Riley didn’t want to draft the former Michigan State University standout. Hardaway also said that if the Heat did select Green, Miami could have three-peated.
Tim Hardaway on when he tried to convince Pat Riley to draft Draymond Green:
"Pat was like, 'I don't want him.'"
(Riley would later regret it.)
"We could have won 3 in a row. With LeBron/Wade/Bosh… [Dray] was a type of Heat player." pic.twitter.com/gc20w8efAs
— Naveen Ganglani (@naveenganglani) January 29, 2025
The last time an NBA team won three titles in a row came when the Los Angeles Lakers did it in the early 2000s. Shaquille O’Neal carried the torch for the Lakers during that stretch and was maybe the most dominant player in the league at the time.
Considering how close the Heat came to a three-peat even without drafting Green, perhaps there’s some truth to Hardaway’s claim. Miami won the 2012 and 2013 NBA titles and reached the championship series again in 2014 with James, Wade and Bosh in the fold.
In Miami’s final playoff run of the Big 3 era, the Heat eliminated the then-Charlotte Bobcats, Brooklyn Nets and Indiana Pacers in the opening three rounds of the 2014 NBA Playoffs.
The Heat even got off to a solid start to the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. Miami split the first two games in San Antonio before the wheels fell off and the Heat dropped every one of the last three games of the best-of-seven series.
Green’s defensive chops seemingly could have come in handy in keeping one of the greatest power forwards the NBA has ever seen — Tim Duncan — in check during the championship series. The legendary big man averaged a double-double of 15.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game even at his advanced age, and he arguably outplayed a significantly younger Bosh in that series.