May 29, 2023 • 37 mins
In Episode 2 of "Four Years of Heat" Israel Gutierrez examines the fallout from "The Decision," how LeBron, Wade and Bosh had to deal with becoming the most hated team in America, the difficult start to the season that had everything being questioned, including the Head Coach, and the return to Cleveland with an atmosphere like no other game in NBA history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
I mean when he made that announcement, first of all,
I was excited, you know, buten Lebron James.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I got loved Lebron James.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And obviously he's one of the greats, you know what
I'm saying. And when I found out that, you know,
we got him at Miami Heat, I was super excited,
but also I was like, he's a genius. Where else
would you go? This is Miami. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
This is the Heat.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We already won a championship.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
You know what it is is.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
The greats connect with the greats. Winners work with winners,
and Lebron is a great and he's a winner. Miami
Heat were winners were great. Our ac in the arena
comes down the air. It's a blessing of greatness.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Okay, called pretty sure.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
The air conditioning is just special in any NBA arena
except for maybe one in Texas, but we'll get to
that one a little later. Welcome back to four years
of Heat. I'm your host, Israel Gutierrez and this is
episode two, Not So.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Fast, DJ khaled.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
The Heat super fan raving about his team's super fans was,
as usual, right in line with other Heat supporters after
that extravagant signing party that set.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The expectation bar so high.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
When your team has accomplished the greatest free agent signing
trifecta the league has ever seen in one off season, Yes,
even the air conditioning starts to feel elite. The afterglow
of simply putting the pieces together was still so strong,
But the piercing ringing criticism it just kept getting louder.
(01:49):
The critics of Lebron for leaving Cleveland the way he
did and for needing teammates the caliber of Wade and
Bosh were only beginning to dig in their heels. If
you go back to the decision, to the question everybody
wants to know Lebron, what's your decision.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
To that one moment where he said.
Speaker 6 (02:06):
And this fall, man, it's very tough, And this fall,
I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and
join the Miami Heat.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
That momentary pause in between the two this falls, that
was the last moment he would have to consider all
of these consequences. He clearly already done so and made
his decision, But that final bit of hesitation, it was
there for a reason. If he could have extrapolated and
explained what exactly made this choice so challenging. Perhaps he
(02:36):
could have avoided some of the arrows headed his way,
but he powered right through with four words. This is
very tough, carrying way more weight than anyone could have imagined.
So much so even as soon to be teammates were
hanging on every syllable, wondering if the chosen One, as
Lebron has tattooed on his back, would actually choose them
(02:58):
as planned, or if a stronger force had pulled them
in another direction. Rachel Nichols has been a sports journalist
since nineteen ninety five and has covered Lebron James in
some capacity since his high school days. She started her
career at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, establishing an affinity
for the South Florida sports scene, then went on to
work for The Washington Post, ESPN, CNN, and Turner Sports,
(03:21):
and currently hosts an interview series on.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Showtime called Headliners.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Nichols regularly interviewed Miami's three stars for national broadcasts throughout
this era, with some particularly memorable talks with Lebron. Specifically,
Rachel noted while watching the decision that Wade appeared to
have a delayed response, almost as if he didn't know
what Lebron would say, despite the fact that he was
at a celebration watch party at Miami's famous Prime one
(03:48):
twelve restaurant and everyone in the room was expecting him
to say some version of Miami or Heat. No matter
what had been decided when they talked amongst themselves, Wade
still recognized the gravity of choice James was about to make,
and given that they hadn't talked in a while, Wade
was on pins and needles watching.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
The Thing I noticed the most from that broadcast and
that moment was that Dwayne Wade, you could tell if
you look back at that video, absolutely was not sure
what was going to come out of Lebron's mouth. You
can see it on his face. And there was a
little bit of presumption on everyone's part, including obviously ESPN
(04:28):
that had a camera there at Prime one twelve Ato's
watched party of Yeah, yeah, it's a done deal. We're
just going to get Dwayne's reaction, and you could tell
on Dwayne's face that he was incredibly nervous about what
Lebron was going to say, and that he was incredibly
relieved after he said it, and I've spoken to Dwayne
a couple times since then, and he said that not
(04:50):
only did he not speak to Lebron for the three
days before the decision came out, Dwayne was very open
about the fact that he and Chris and Lebron had
made this plan, but he just stopped hearing from Lebron
about three days before the decision date, and that he
was texting and getting no answer. And Dwayne has said
(05:11):
to me, I kept thinking, Okay, me and Chris, that's good.
That's a duo, Me and Chris. That's gonna be great.
We're gonna be great being Chris. So he was trying
to talk himself into the idea that Lebron had possibly
changed his mind. And I said, so, you didn't know
what was going to come out of Lebron's mouth, And
he said, I'm not sure Lebron knew for sure what
was going to come out of his mouth. That in
(05:31):
that moment, he thinks Lebron not that I was having
second thoughts, but just the enormity of the situation and
what was he about to say was really weighing on him.
But Lebron, of course, said South Beach. Dwayne also told
me that When Lebron first said South Peach, it took
him a second. It took him a beat because, as
(05:52):
you know, they don't play in South Beach, so it
was not the word he expected. The word he expected
was Miami or they heat, and even those South Beach
was obviously that Lebron was coming to join Dwayne. The
fact that it wasn't any of those three words sort
of through him for just another half second.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Okay, let's be real for a second.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Do we really think Lebron would have tossed out the
ultimate plot twist and said something other than Miami at
this point, Imagine the egg on the faces of everyone
at that Miami watch party had Lebron announced he was
staying home or that he was joining Derrick Rose and
the Baby Bulls. There's just no way, right, this had
been planned far in advance and nothing was going to
(06:34):
change this trio's mind, right, right, Well, perhaps one day,
when Lebron retires, he'll break out the rocking chair and
tell us exactly what he was thinking leading up to
that day and just how warranted Wade and Bosh's concerns were.
In the meantime, Brian Windhorst is probably the best person
to ask. Windhors has been covering Lebron since his high
(06:56):
school days, working for the Akron Beacon Journal and Cleveland
Plain Dealer before joining ESPN to cover the NBA and
a lot more Lebron. Was this the smooth finish to
years of planning or was the path more of a
rickety bridge that could always collapse just before all parties
reached the other side.
Speaker 7 (07:15):
So when it comes to stuff like this, I'm always
going to judge actions over words, So let's focus on
the actions. The actions were. In two thousand and six,
Chris Bosh, Lebron, James, and Dwayne Wade all aligned their
contracts with three year extensions. At the time, under the
(07:35):
rules that existed, those guys doing that was unheard of,
and Carmelo Anthony, who was obviously in their association group
and had was drafted in the same draft class, had
the same options. He elected not to do that. He
didn't like the risk associated with it, and he took
a five year extension. And it's interesting that him his
(07:57):
decision doing that ended up causing an interesting development later
on when Lebron, Bosh, and Wade all got together and
Carmelo had to force a trade, which ended up harming him.
That decision ended up in some ways coming back to
backfire on Carmelo. But they obviously at that time wanted
their contracts aligned to allow for options down the road.
(08:20):
But the other thing I think it's important is the
actions that took place the week of the twenty ten
free agency decisions. They obviously had discussed with each other
the idea of playing together, and obviously at some point
there was an alignment on deciding to play together with
(08:40):
the Heat. And I've listened to all three of their stories.
There's certain details that don't line up, and so what
the actual truth was, I don't know if we'll ever
fully establish. There obviously was a time where they all
got together and said, Okay, it's going to be Miami.
And I do think for Lebron he always thought it
(09:00):
was going to be Cleveland or Miami. And when Cleveland
made the pitch, Lebron's discussions with them were about trying
to add another piece, and all of those teams discussions
were about trying to add Lebron and another piece. That
was the what all those teams brought. It was only
the Heat that was able to execute Lebron plus two,
and it was just simple mathematics that they were able
(09:22):
to do that. So in summation they always left the
option of playing together open and took actions with their
contracts to make that happen as soon as possible, But
actually doing it, I do think, came right down to
roughly decision day in twenty ten.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
By the actual decision day, Cleveland had been ruled out
because of Bosh's lack of interest in playing there, and
even though it felt like Miami was the only remaining option,
there were still lingering doubts about what Lebron would actually say.
It was the first and most obvious sign that even
though this was a union of three stars trying to
win championships for themselves and their organization, this was Lebron
(10:05):
James taking control of his legacy, an extended business trip,
if you will, a four year college stretch, as he
would later call it.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
He had to win championships, not Bosh.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
He needed to start a collection of rings to chase Jordan,
not Wade. The pressure Wade in Bosh felt was just
as much to accomplish this for Lebron as it was
for their own careers, and by the time they'd reached
Herbert Field, a US Air Force base in the Panhandle
of Florida, for their first training camp together. All the
Heat players had started to feel the unprecedented level of
(10:41):
scrutiny this team would face. Their ears were still ringing.
Nichols could tell the tone of Miami's main three had
changed from post signing party to pre training camp interview.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I actually interviewed them at the PEP rally, so there
was that joyous moment, and then the interview you're referring
to was a lot more defensive. And just to see
that change was super interesting because the PEP rally, as
you remember, was all excitement, and they got a little
carried away, as they admitted later with the not one,
(11:14):
not two, not three, not seventeen, And you know, it
was joy and it was happiness, and it was this
excitement about being together and all the possibility. And by
the time we got to right before the season, they
had had all that time to hear about how terrible
they were, how disloyal some of them were, how selfish
(11:37):
some of them were. All the things that were hurled
at them, and so much of it was about so
much more than basketball or Lebron James. There were so
many feelings about the state of the country. There were
so many feelings about race, there were so many feelings
about Middle America and people leaving their hometowns and their
(11:59):
states in the middle of the country because industries had
dried up, and that feeling of being abandoned. There's so
many things that tied into why that backlash happened. But
you could tell by the time we sat down for
that interview right before the season, that backlash had hit
them all pretty hard.
Speaker 8 (12:16):
You know. It's that's alid part of the game.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
And at the end of the day that we all
know if they booing you because they don't like you,
or because they fear you, what do you think.
Speaker 9 (12:25):
I think because they fear you can't boo Jordan. How
can you boo George because you don't like him.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
You don't like George's game, You're gonna boom Maddie's games,
Bird games doing that.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And the posture that they took was to go on
the offensive.
Speaker 10 (12:40):
We all know everything that someone has said about us
individually as a team.
Speaker 8 (12:44):
The style of basketball that we want to play.
Speaker 10 (12:46):
We want to defensive, rebounding, those our main two things.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
You can't be nice and do that.
Speaker 10 (12:52):
You know, when you see Jordan take the ball from
somebody and go down and dunk in somebody's face, He's
not like, I guess I'll take it from I guess
I don't have a nice day.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And thanks to ESPN for that clip.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
They definitely grabbed that idea of you want us to
be the villains. Okay, we're going to be the villains.
Lebron talked about the fact that he had made a
list all summer of all the people who had said
things to him, and I said, what are you going
to do with that list? And he said, turn him
into wins? You did right on your Twitter page.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Don't think for a minute that I'm not taking mental
notes at everyone who took shots at me this summer.
Speaker 9 (13:27):
Explain and none explain you read a sel of explantor what.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Are those mental notes going to translate.
Speaker 9 (13:33):
Into to a lot of wins?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Thanks again to ESPN for that sound.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Training camp at an Air Force base was a less
than subtle choice by team president Riley to address the
level of dedication needed and the type of brotherhood that
would have to be forged in order to complete the
championship journey, but it also set the tone for the
bunker mentality this group would have to employ to maintain insanity.
Every single word was picked apart, and the coverage of
(14:00):
the team itself was criticized.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Remember the Heat Index.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
No, it was effectively a separate site from ESPN dot
com that had multiple reporters covering only the Heat, not
the rest of the association, just Miami. No matter how
mine or the story, it got major coverage. Publicly, it
was deemed overkill for a team that had won absolutely
(14:24):
nothing at the time, despite the fact the site never
lacked for traffic. I might have written a few words
for the Heat Index, and I remember finding it strange
that I went from a local newspaper in the Miami
Herald to a national outlet like ESPN, only to cover
the local team even closer. But that was the world
Lebron and the Heat created for everyone, and the Miami
(14:45):
Heat as a team, as Windhors discussed, were forced to
wear a label they never wanted, the label of villain.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
He came off seeming like a mercenary there, and a
mercenary isn't historically a desirable side to root for, you know,
they were sort of the villains. Then the nature of
them being put together was of of of a villainous act.
(15:16):
A lot of people compared what Lebron, Wade and Bosh
did to the wrestling move nWo. nWo was cast to
be a villain. They were. Their script was to be
a villain. The fact that the Heat wore black, and
that you know, we're from a glamorous place and sort
(15:39):
of represented a lifestyle and in a sort of a
class that is not the every fan like. All of
it fit into a narrative creating this team, but doing
it in such a way that empowered them, and for
it to be an absolute abject disaster in public relations,
an area that they awe themselves as like thought leaders
(16:02):
in that was a huge blow. Then, for him to
get to this team and be generally disliked every time
they stepped out of Miami was not something he was
prepared for, and it was especially surprising because he thought
he had prepared for everything. I don't think he could
(16:22):
possibly think that there would be more scrutiny on him
that was already on him, from being on Sports Illustrated
when he was seventeen, to being on ESPN as a
high school senior, which at the time was unheard of
to signing this huge Nike contract. I mean, people forget
Kobe signed. Kobe Bryant was a three time NBA champion
(16:45):
and one of the faces of the league. He signed
a Nike contract the gear Lebron came in the league
for forty million. Lebron signed a Nike contract coming into
the league for ninety million. Okay, he felt like that
was a big pressures point. The drama in Cleveland of
him not getting over the hump, you know, being with
(17:07):
the number one seed his last two years there and
not getting it done, you know, struggling in his last
playoff series with the Calves. I think he thought he
knew what adversity was, and he had seen a lot
of it, and frankly, he had overcome a big portion
of He hadn't become a champion yet, but I'm sure
he felt he was going to get there, and so
when he came to Miami and there was just the
(17:30):
only the only thing I could describe was nightly venom.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
The regular season began in the most venomous possible setting,
Boston's TD Garden. It was where Wade and the Heat
were eliminated in their previous postseason and where Lebron had
so many duels with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
It was the Celtics, remember that also knocked out Lebron
in his last game as a Cavalier. This crowd was
(18:03):
ready to be the first to mock this Heat super team,
and Miami's primary characters gave the crowd plenty of ammunition.
Speaker 11 (18:10):
Eighty three seventy two.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
Bush crowd started in with the overrated checks. We're in
game one.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
If you recall, there weren't many returning players on this
Heat team. It was Wade Eudonnis Haslam, Mario Chalmers, James Jones,
and Joel Anthony. After that, it was a brand new
group trying to create chemistry. Well, it was obvious in
the opener that chemistry was still to be discovered. The
team that was supposed to challenge the all time wins record,
(18:44):
according to some, scored all of eighty points in a
dud of a debut in Boston.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
This is a work in progress.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
We feel like we all know, Rome wasn't built in
one day, you know, so it's going to take time,
and we understand that we have to keep on making
progress every day and she continued to get better.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
We just missed shots. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Yeah, we miss some easy shots and never were able
to get into a proper rhythm.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
But that's not a reason to panic. Right now. This
is one of eighty two.
Speaker 12 (19:16):
You know, I'm sorry if I won't thought we's gonna
go eighty two and zero.
Speaker 8 (19:19):
It just ain't happened.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
Players that were starting are getting heavy minutes at the
beginning of the season. Players like starting point guard Carlos
Arroyo and reserve Eddie House would barely be playing by
season's end, or, in the case of Arroyo, not even
on the team. Throw in the skilled duplication of Lebron
and Wade, and the uncertainty and how to use Bosh effectively,
and it meant the Heat started that season fairly uneven.
(19:43):
They weren't lost, as you could easily get over either.
They each seemed to come dressed with one enormous red flag,
and said flag would be waived on every sports themed
talk show in America until even Heat fans were in
a panic. There was the opener in Boston where they
all looked like strangers. There was the second loss to
the New Orleans Hornets, led by a Mecca okafor the
(20:06):
big man had a twenty six point seventeen rebound performance
and it was a major concern for a Heat team
with questions at center. There was a loss to Utah
where Paul Millsap went nuts with forty six points, unearthing
more holes in the Heat defense.
Speaker 11 (20:21):
He gives it off the pall.
Speaker 13 (20:25):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
One point?
Speaker 11 (20:29):
Gay at the buzzer? Millsap the follow up and all yeah,
is that he knows it.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
There was another loss to Boston, this time in Miami,
where Ray Allen hit his first seven three pointers and
Wade was two for twelve from the field for a
lousy eight points. Then there was a loss to Memphis
without Wade, where Rudy Gay hit a game winner over
Lebron Rudy for the win.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Yes, yes, yes, the night.
Speaker 14 (20:59):
Was on when the ball left his hand and he
is the hero knock him down a big shot over
Lebron James out stressed armed.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
There was a loss to Indiana where the Heat scored
just seventy seven points at home and Wade had the
worst shooting game of his career, one of thirteen from
the field. There was the game, the Heat got dominated
by Dwight Howard and JJ Reddick to fall to eight
and seven. On the same day, President Barack Obama told
Barbara Walters the Heat needed time to gel. It had
(21:31):
reached a presidential level of concern. Then there was game
number seventeen in Dallas. The Heat would fall to nine
and eight and have a player's only meeting afterward. It's
pretty obvious because it's in the title, but a player's
only meeting does not include coaches. That was particularly notable
after this contest, however, because during the game there was
(21:52):
an incident that had some questioning the head coach, Eric
Spolstra and his relationship with this super team. As the
team was headed to the huddle a timeout, Spolster was
walking onto the floor as Lebron was walking toward the bench.
The two collided, Lebron's right arm bumping into Spolster's right shoulder,
despite the fact James was looking in Spolster's direction the
(22:12):
entire time.
Speaker 7 (22:13):
Under the time out there Spolster.
Speaker 14 (22:17):
Miami still has not scored in the third quarter, but
Dallas has scored thirteen unanswered points.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Here's Brian Winhorst on the first in season controversy to
hit this Heat team bump gate.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
The bump was absolutely a message. Lebron doesn't do that
without sending a message just how far he was willing
to go. I'm not sure what I remember is coming in,
you know, I believe the game in Dallas is on
a Saturday night, there was a day off and coming
(22:54):
in on Monday or you know, whenever. The next availability
was wondering how Eric Spolstra was going to react to
a lot of speculation about his job status, and Eric
being absolutely as confident as I'd ever seen him that
entire season, and that was a huge moment because while
(23:19):
he was certainly projecting it to the media and therefore
the public, he was also projecting it to the players.
And he was doing it because he knew, despite what
Lebron's messages were, that he had the organizations backing. And
in later years it kind of came out. And it's
(23:40):
not surprising because this is kind of who Lebron is
that Lebron may have passive aggressively made some references to
Pat about trying to coach again. I'm not sure Lebron
ever actually directly called for it. I think he just
sort of influenced in his way, and you know, we
(24:00):
saw the same things happen later in his career with
other coaches, so it's not that surprising. But I actually
think that that was a valuable moment because Spolstra, knowing
that he had Riley's back, only emboldened him, and it
was kind of like, you know, a teenager testing his limits.
(24:21):
He tested his limits, he learned what they were, and
they moved on from there.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
We've already established a level of pressure placed on Lebron
after joining Miami. His vision of how this was going
to go didn't start out nine to eight. The obvious
place to set the blame was on the head of Spolstra,
who happened to only be in his third year in
the seat. Lebron's mission to come to Miami and be
stamped a champion wasn't going to be ruined by some
(24:47):
novice headman, especially when a legend was in the organization
in pat Riley, and he'd already done one in season
rescue routine for his five oh six championship team when
stan Van Gundy stepped down after twenty one in games.
As Windhorse explained, the heat would stand by Spolstra even
after some let's call it nudging from Lebron, but as
(25:11):
former Heat point guard Mario Chalmers tells it, Lebron almost
had to kick the tires on a Riley return because
Lebron didn't come to Miami to fail. He was in
the process, in his mind of chasing and eventually surpassing
the careers of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, the players
he watched and idolized. Brian and Jordan had a head
(25:32):
coach in common while earning their rings, and for Lebron,
a basketball historian, he figured he'd need a similarly experienced
leader with which to pair, and he'd say as much.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Here's Chalmers.
Speaker 13 (25:47):
I would hear business pieces of it, But I know
bron biggest state was he's never had let me not
say the wrong thing, A highly successful culture, a highly
started out at the coach. You know, Mike Brown was
a good coach, was a good coach.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
He never had his Phil Jackson.
Speaker 13 (26:07):
Right there, you go, that's perfect way to say. He
says that he said that multiple times on the team
in the locker room. So I don't think it was
more of anything against Spoe. I just think I mean,
I think Bron just wanted that person that had the
accolades and that he knows what really pushed him to
be what he came to Miami to beat, and that's
one of the greats. And I don't think he's seen
(26:27):
that from Spoe at first. But once they got it
together and you could see them form a different type
of bond, a different type of relationship.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
What the heat we're searching for was that binding agent,
the unifying experience that clarifies the mission and brings the
team even closer. At the moment, this was a team
barely over the five hundred mark, with a superstar wondering
if he'd made the right choice, and almost an entire
country reveling in its failures. This wasn't what you Donnis
(26:54):
Haslam gave up millions to be a part of.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
It was a struggle.
Speaker 12 (26:58):
I mean, we had a great, great training camp, you know,
competition wise, I think we were where we needed to be.
I think mentally, you know, it took some It took
a while to get comfortable. You know, nobody wants to
step on anybody told you know, we want to allow
le Bron to be Lebron. We want to allow Chris
to be Chris, I think Dwayne and I kind of
just took a back seat just to kind of let
those guys get comfortable, and I think that ended up hurting,
(27:19):
you know, all of us early on in the season.
But I think it's something that needed to happen. You know,
you can't just go from A to D. You got
to go through B and C. You can't skip steps,
and I think those growing pains with things we just
had to go through.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
Did the B and C Haslam reference there also mean
the Boston Celtics. No, but it would have been really
cool if it did. That's a confrontation still to come.
For now, it was just one C, the city of
Cleveland that would provide just the building block this group needed.
To this point, there was an awkwardness hovering over this group.
(27:54):
Their joy for the game, their thrill of being brought together.
It had been met with a national grown and dulled severely.
The resolve they built up during that stay in the
Air Force base was being threatened. Lebron was mystified that
he was booed, and that loss in Memphis, a city
that Lebron never scorned. He never even teased the possibility
of signing there. After a couple of steadying winds against
(28:17):
the Wizards and Pistons, the Heat were set for Cleveland,
Lebron's former home, a place he knew he wouldn't be
greeted warmly anymore.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
And then, of course, you guys play in Cleveland. Dwayne
you recently said you think you're going to need a
police escort just to get out of that city. What
is that going to be? Like him?
Speaker 9 (28:36):
That's gonna bring my camera.
Speaker 8 (28:38):
I just want to get the footage.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
I think it's get a lot of booze that night too.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
You know, it definitely won't be a warm reception, but
it's another game, another challenge for us to deal with
adversity throughout the course of the season, and.
Speaker 9 (28:55):
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
I've got a lot of memories with those fans, and
you know, I'm gonna see a lot of fans seen
every single night for those forty one home games every season,
plus playoffs.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
But I'll be on the other side of sound.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Thank you to ESPN for that bite. It's one of
the developing themes of this Heat experience. It was even
more of a harrowing homecoming than anyone could have predicted.
Speaker 14 (29:17):
For seven seasons, Lebron James Moore, the colors of the
Cleveland Cavaliers. Then came the decision, and tonight comes the return,
and moments ago he took to the court in.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Cleveland, just off Lake Erie Is, the building once called
Quicken Loans Arena. On December two, twenty ten, Rachel Nichols
(29:52):
was one of many journalists who parachuted in to witness
the Return of the King.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Do you sort of think, Okay, we know what sand
behavior is like, and what a difficult or tense situation
is like, and absolutely none of that prepared any single
one of us for what it was going to be like.
I have never before or since been in an environment
like that. I have been to thousands of games in
half a dozen sports. I have been covered Super Bowls,
(30:18):
I have covered World Series. I have covered other players
returns to cities they used to play in. I have
never ever seen or felt anything like that. And when
I say felt, the feeling is is that the building
was vibrating. And I don't mean that is a euphemism.
I mean that there was so much noise and so
much sound that you could put your hand down on
(30:40):
the table in front of you and it was vibrating
a little bit. The players would say later as they
were gathering in the pregame locker room that it felt
like the fans were in there with them, that's how
loud it was. And they actually had to cover They
call it the vomitatorium, which is a ridiculous name, but
it's the tunnel where players walk out from the locker
room onto the court. That area had not been previously
(31:03):
covered in Cleveland, and they actually covered it for that
game because they were so worried about what fans were
going to throw at the players. And I was their
court side and I saw a battery land in front
of me, so I know those were being thrown, and
who knows what else from other parts of the building,
to say the least, at the names being called of
(31:23):
these players, and went way outside the bounds of what
is appropriate on a basketball court. And I want to
be careful because you know, there's give or take, twenty
thousand people in that building, and I am sure that
nineteen thousand, five hundred of them behaved completely appropriately, But
the fact that you did have a vocal and physical
minority of fans that didn't really change the experience. And
(31:49):
one of the things I noticed as all of this
chaos was going on is that Lebron James, with his
headphones on as he was getting ready for the game,
looked like he had no idea that all of this
was happening outside those headphones around him. And of course
he did, We all know that he did. But the
fact that he was able to maintain that barrier and
(32:10):
that mental piece in that environment is one of the
more impressive things, frankly, that I have seen. And we
saw how he played during that game. He played like
he felt and you could see it.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
Now.
Speaker 15 (32:23):
It's me I stuttered for the visiting why every heat
at four six from Saint Visit Saint Very High School
Lubber six labroad day.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Windhorse, like myself was in the building as well. I'd
been there probably a dozen times in my career to
that point. And when I say the air felt thick,
it's the only way I could explain it. Everywhere you
looked there was a sign of tension. The oxygen literally
felt different than it did outside. Windhorse had spent countless
(32:59):
nights in that fiding, none were like this night.
Speaker 7 (33:03):
Yeah. So I remember walking into the bowl and I
don't know, maybe it was just a perception, but everything
felt different. The light felt different, the air felt heavy.
You could just feel it. I mean, you know, typically,
you know before games, you know, there's just sort of
(33:24):
just one hundred different things happening, you know, and you
know it's all sort of unfocused. It's just sort of relaxed.
Everybody's eyes in that room were on one person, and
you know, the Calves were not calming it down. They
were putting him on the scoreboard. You know, when Calves
(33:46):
owner Dan Gilbert came in, they put him on the
scoreboard as he walked in, almost like it was a
some sort of fake boxing match to sort of, you know,
pit him as the opponent, even though they're laughably not
combatants on that court. It was very uncomfortable. It was
uncomfortable for me. I can't imagine what it felt like
(34:07):
for Lebron and the absolutely brilliant, just soul sucking, emboldening
at the same time performance in the second half that
Lebron had rena row.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That's when teams get better of Lebron. James is just
Lebron fire here in this third period.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
Just killing that crowd with spectacular execution.
Speaker 9 (34:37):
This is not there now.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
He did say coming in this game, he knows all
the spots on this floor and he's going to every single.
Speaker 15 (34:44):
One of them.
Speaker 11 (34:45):
So Lebron is taking us tollicks pat to Cleveland. Lebron
James of a heap, facing this hostile crowd all night long.
It's an easy win, and you know that they are
happy to get out of towns the back hallover for
Saturday night's meeting with Atlanta. The Heat with a third
straight win. They go to twelve at eight.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
And it broke the Cavaliers because they were a bad
team that was doing okay, and they ended up losing
more than twenty in a row after that, and the
Heat basically had one loss for the next six weeks.
That was as pivotal of a regular season game as
you'll ever see it.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Lebron finished that game with thirty eight points, twenty four
of them coming in the third quarter.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
He added eight assists and didn't even need to play
in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
He was talking to players on the Caps bench after
a couple of impressive buckets. It looked like the joyous
version of Lebron, at least for one game, was back,
and as a result, it appeared the Heat turned the
corner with such vigor they couldn't even see it behind
them anymore. The one eighteen to ninety dismantling of his
former franchise would be the third of eleven straight wins
(36:01):
for Lebron in the Heat, and it would be part
of a stretch where Miami won twenty one of twenty
two games. What team did Miami lose to in that span?
That would be the Dallas Mavericks, the team Miami lost
to during Bumpgate that got this whole role started. It
would provide a bit of foreshadowing, helping establish the Mavericks
as one of the Heat's primary rivals in this era.
(36:24):
But another rival would also emerge in year one, the
Chicago Bulls, and they would soon bring this red hot
Heat team to actual tears.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
When Dwayne Wade had two meetings with the Bulls, he
didn't have that second meeting for fun.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
The questions got louder. The joy for a lot of
people got heightened by They're not good enough.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
They're not good enough.
Speaker 13 (36:52):
They're not good enough, They're not good enough.
Speaker 9 (36:54):
That's the game.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Within the game.
Speaker 12 (36:55):
You know that people you forget, but it's a real
war out there.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
It's not check as it's.
Speaker 12 (37:01):
Chest, just gonna beat him up. I'm making physical and
once again that's right up my alley. I told you
they wanted me to be here for a reason. You know,
they sacrificed for me for a reason. So once again
I'm gonna give them their money's work.
Speaker 7 (37:15):
I believe that the pressure got to him, and I
think the pressure got to him in Dallas, and so
what made me wonder if something within him had been broken.
Speaker 12 (37:24):
Lebron James comes in front of him, they do the
little rap video punch thing and all that.
Speaker 8 (37:28):
I remember it like it was yesterday.
Speaker 12 (37:31):
And then it was like from that point on Dirt
and Jason Terry went on Demon time.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Four years. If he does a production off iHeartRadio and
the NBA
I mean when he made that announcement, first of all,
I was excited, you know, buten Lebron James.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
I got loved Lebron James.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And obviously he's one of the greats, you know what
I'm saying. And when I found out that, you know,
we got him at Miami Heat, I was super excited,
but also I was like, he's a genius. Where else
would you go? This is Miami. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
This is the Heat.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We already won a championship.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
You know what it is is.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
The greats connect with the greats. Winners work with winners,
and Lebron is a great and he's a winner. Miami
Heat were winners were great. Our ac in the arena
comes down the air. It's a blessing of greatness.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Okay, called pretty sure.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
The air conditioning is just special in any NBA arena
except for maybe one in Texas, but we'll get to
that one a little later. Welcome back to four years
of Heat. I'm your host, Israel Gutierrez and this is
episode two, Not So.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
Fast, DJ khaled.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
The Heat super fan raving about his team's super fans was,
as usual, right in line with other Heat supporters after
that extravagant signing party that set.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The expectation bar so high.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
When your team has accomplished the greatest free agent signing
trifecta the league has ever seen in one off season, Yes,
even the air conditioning starts to feel elite. The afterglow
of simply putting the pieces together was still so strong,
But the piercing ringing criticism it just kept getting louder.
(01:49):
The critics of Lebron for leaving Cleveland the way he
did and for needing teammates the caliber of Wade and
Bosh were only beginning to dig in their heels. If
you go back to the decision, to the question everybody
wants to know Lebron, what's your decision.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
To that one moment where he said.
Speaker 6 (02:06):
And this fall, man, it's very tough, And this fall,
I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and
join the Miami Heat.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
That momentary pause in between the two this falls, that
was the last moment he would have to consider all
of these consequences. He clearly already done so and made
his decision, But that final bit of hesitation, it was
there for a reason. If he could have extrapolated and
explained what exactly made this choice so challenging. Perhaps he
(02:36):
could have avoided some of the arrows headed his way,
but he powered right through with four words. This is
very tough, carrying way more weight than anyone could have imagined.
So much so even as soon to be teammates were
hanging on every syllable, wondering if the chosen One, as
Lebron has tattooed on his back, would actually choose them
(02:58):
as planned, or if a stronger force had pulled them
in another direction. Rachel Nichols has been a sports journalist
since nineteen ninety five and has covered Lebron James in
some capacity since his high school days. She started her
career at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, establishing an affinity
for the South Florida sports scene, then went on to
work for The Washington Post, ESPN, CNN, and Turner Sports,
(03:21):
and currently hosts an interview series on.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Showtime called Headliners.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
Nichols regularly interviewed Miami's three stars for national broadcasts throughout
this era, with some particularly memorable talks with Lebron. Specifically,
Rachel noted while watching the decision that Wade appeared to
have a delayed response, almost as if he didn't know
what Lebron would say, despite the fact that he was
at a celebration watch party at Miami's famous Prime one
(03:48):
twelve restaurant and everyone in the room was expecting him
to say some version of Miami or Heat. No matter
what had been decided when they talked amongst themselves, Wade
still recognized the gravity of choice James was about to make,
and given that they hadn't talked in a while, Wade
was on pins and needles watching.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
The Thing I noticed the most from that broadcast and
that moment was that Dwayne Wade, you could tell if
you look back at that video, absolutely was not sure
what was going to come out of Lebron's mouth. You
can see it on his face. And there was a
little bit of presumption on everyone's part, including obviously ESPN
(04:28):
that had a camera there at Prime one twelve Ato's
watched party of Yeah, yeah, it's a done deal. We're
just going to get Dwayne's reaction, and you could tell
on Dwayne's face that he was incredibly nervous about what
Lebron was going to say, and that he was incredibly
relieved after he said it, and I've spoken to Dwayne
a couple times since then, and he said that not
(04:50):
only did he not speak to Lebron for the three
days before the decision came out, Dwayne was very open
about the fact that he and Chris and Lebron had
made this plan, but he just stopped hearing from Lebron
about three days before the decision date, and that he
was texting and getting no answer. And Dwayne has said
(05:11):
to me, I kept thinking, Okay, me and Chris, that's good.
That's a duo, Me and Chris. That's gonna be great.
We're gonna be great being Chris. So he was trying
to talk himself into the idea that Lebron had possibly
changed his mind. And I said, so, you didn't know
what was going to come out of Lebron's mouth, And
he said, I'm not sure Lebron knew for sure what
was going to come out of his mouth. That in
(05:31):
that moment, he thinks Lebron not that I was having
second thoughts, but just the enormity of the situation and
what was he about to say was really weighing on him.
But Lebron, of course, said South Beach. Dwayne also told
me that When Lebron first said South Peach, it took
him a second. It took him a beat because, as
(05:52):
you know, they don't play in South Beach, so it
was not the word he expected. The word he expected
was Miami or they heat, and even those South Beach
was obviously that Lebron was coming to join Dwayne. The
fact that it wasn't any of those three words sort
of through him for just another half second.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Okay, let's be real for a second.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Do we really think Lebron would have tossed out the
ultimate plot twist and said something other than Miami at
this point, Imagine the egg on the faces of everyone
at that Miami watch party had Lebron announced he was
staying home or that he was joining Derrick Rose and
the Baby Bulls. There's just no way, right, this had
been planned far in advance and nothing was going to
(06:34):
change this trio's mind, right, right, Well, perhaps one day,
when Lebron retires, he'll break out the rocking chair and
tell us exactly what he was thinking leading up to
that day and just how warranted Wade and Bosh's concerns were.
In the meantime, Brian Windhorst is probably the best person
to ask. Windhors has been covering Lebron since his high
(06:56):
school days, working for the Akron Beacon Journal and Cleveland
Plain Dealer before joining ESPN to cover the NBA and
a lot more Lebron. Was this the smooth finish to
years of planning or was the path more of a
rickety bridge that could always collapse just before all parties
reached the other side.
Speaker 7 (07:15):
So when it comes to stuff like this, I'm always
going to judge actions over words, So let's focus on
the actions. The actions were. In two thousand and six,
Chris Bosh, Lebron, James, and Dwayne Wade all aligned their
contracts with three year extensions. At the time, under the
(07:35):
rules that existed, those guys doing that was unheard of,
and Carmelo Anthony, who was obviously in their association group
and had was drafted in the same draft class, had
the same options. He elected not to do that. He
didn't like the risk associated with it, and he took
a five year extension. And it's interesting that him his
(07:57):
decision doing that ended up causing an interesting development later
on when Lebron, Bosh, and Wade all got together and
Carmelo had to force a trade, which ended up harming him.
That decision ended up in some ways coming back to
backfire on Carmelo. But they obviously at that time wanted
their contracts aligned to allow for options down the road.
(08:20):
But the other thing I think it's important is the
actions that took place the week of the twenty ten
free agency decisions. They obviously had discussed with each other
the idea of playing together, and obviously at some point
there was an alignment on deciding to play together with
(08:40):
the Heat. And I've listened to all three of their stories.
There's certain details that don't line up, and so what
the actual truth was, I don't know if we'll ever
fully establish. There obviously was a time where they all
got together and said, Okay, it's going to be Miami.
And I do think for Lebron he always thought it
(09:00):
was going to be Cleveland or Miami. And when Cleveland
made the pitch, Lebron's discussions with them were about trying
to add another piece, and all of those teams discussions
were about trying to add Lebron and another piece. That
was the what all those teams brought. It was only
the Heat that was able to execute Lebron plus two,
and it was just simple mathematics that they were able
(09:22):
to do that. So in summation they always left the
option of playing together open and took actions with their
contracts to make that happen as soon as possible, But
actually doing it, I do think, came right down to
roughly decision day in twenty ten.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
By the actual decision day, Cleveland had been ruled out
because of Bosh's lack of interest in playing there, and
even though it felt like Miami was the only remaining option,
there were still lingering doubts about what Lebron would actually say.
It was the first and most obvious sign that even
though this was a union of three stars trying to
win championships for themselves and their organization, this was Lebron
(10:05):
James taking control of his legacy, an extended business trip,
if you will, a four year college stretch, as he
would later call it.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
He had to win championships, not Bosh.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
He needed to start a collection of rings to chase Jordan,
not Wade. The pressure Wade in Bosh felt was just
as much to accomplish this for Lebron as it was
for their own careers, and by the time they'd reached
Herbert Field, a US Air Force base in the Panhandle
of Florida, for their first training camp together. All the
Heat players had started to feel the unprecedented level of
(10:41):
scrutiny this team would face. Their ears were still ringing.
Nichols could tell the tone of Miami's main three had
changed from post signing party to pre training camp interview.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
I actually interviewed them at the PEP rally, so there
was that joyous moment, and then the interview you're referring
to was a lot more defensive. And just to see
that change was super interesting because the PEP rally, as
you remember, was all excitement, and they got a little
carried away, as they admitted later with the not one,
(11:14):
not two, not three, not seventeen, And you know, it
was joy and it was happiness, and it was this
excitement about being together and all the possibility. And by
the time we got to right before the season, they
had had all that time to hear about how terrible
they were, how disloyal some of them were, how selfish
(11:37):
some of them were. All the things that were hurled
at them, and so much of it was about so
much more than basketball or Lebron James. There were so
many feelings about the state of the country. There were
so many feelings about race, there were so many feelings
about Middle America and people leaving their hometowns and their
(11:59):
states in the middle of the country because industries had
dried up, and that feeling of being abandoned. There's so
many things that tied into why that backlash happened. But
you could tell by the time we sat down for
that interview right before the season, that backlash had hit
them all pretty hard.
Speaker 8 (12:16):
You know. It's that's alid part of the game.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
And at the end of the day that we all
know if they booing you because they don't like you,
or because they fear you, what do you think.
Speaker 9 (12:25):
I think because they fear you can't boo Jordan. How
can you boo George because you don't like him.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
You don't like George's game, You're gonna boom Maddie's games,
Bird games doing that.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And the posture that they took was to go on
the offensive.
Speaker 10 (12:40):
We all know everything that someone has said about us
individually as a team.
Speaker 8 (12:44):
The style of basketball that we want to play.
Speaker 10 (12:46):
We want to defensive, rebounding, those our main two things.
Speaker 8 (12:49):
You can't be nice and do that.
Speaker 10 (12:52):
You know, when you see Jordan take the ball from
somebody and go down and dunk in somebody's face, He's
not like, I guess I'll take it from I guess
I don't have a nice day.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
And thanks to ESPN for that clip.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
They definitely grabbed that idea of you want us to
be the villains. Okay, we're going to be the villains.
Lebron talked about the fact that he had made a
list all summer of all the people who had said
things to him, and I said, what are you going
to do with that list? And he said, turn him
into wins? You did right on your Twitter page.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Don't think for a minute that I'm not taking mental
notes at everyone who took shots at me this summer.
Speaker 9 (13:27):
Explain and none explain you read a sel of explantor what.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
Are those mental notes going to translate.
Speaker 9 (13:33):
Into to a lot of wins?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Thanks again to ESPN for that sound.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Training camp at an Air Force base was a less
than subtle choice by team president Riley to address the
level of dedication needed and the type of brotherhood that
would have to be forged in order to complete the
championship journey, but it also set the tone for the
bunker mentality this group would have to employ to maintain insanity.
Every single word was picked apart, and the coverage of
(14:00):
the team itself was criticized.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Remember the Heat Index.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
No, it was effectively a separate site from ESPN dot
com that had multiple reporters covering only the Heat, not
the rest of the association, just Miami. No matter how
mine or the story, it got major coverage. Publicly, it
was deemed overkill for a team that had won absolutely
(14:24):
nothing at the time, despite the fact the site never
lacked for traffic. I might have written a few words
for the Heat Index, and I remember finding it strange
that I went from a local newspaper in the Miami
Herald to a national outlet like ESPN, only to cover
the local team even closer. But that was the world
Lebron and the Heat created for everyone, and the Miami
(14:45):
Heat as a team, as Windhors discussed, were forced to
wear a label they never wanted, the label of villain.
Speaker 7 (14:54):
He came off seeming like a mercenary there, and a
mercenary isn't historically a desirable side to root for, you know,
they were sort of the villains. Then the nature of
them being put together was of of of a villainous act.
(15:16):
A lot of people compared what Lebron, Wade and Bosh
did to the wrestling move nWo. nWo was cast to
be a villain. They were. Their script was to be
a villain. The fact that the Heat wore black, and
that you know, we're from a glamorous place and sort
(15:39):
of represented a lifestyle and in a sort of a
class that is not the every fan like. All of
it fit into a narrative creating this team, but doing
it in such a way that empowered them, and for
it to be an absolute abject disaster in public relations,
an area that they awe themselves as like thought leaders
(16:02):
in that was a huge blow. Then, for him to
get to this team and be generally disliked every time
they stepped out of Miami was not something he was
prepared for, and it was especially surprising because he thought
he had prepared for everything. I don't think he could
(16:22):
possibly think that there would be more scrutiny on him
that was already on him, from being on Sports Illustrated
when he was seventeen, to being on ESPN as a
high school senior, which at the time was unheard of
to signing this huge Nike contract. I mean, people forget
Kobe signed. Kobe Bryant was a three time NBA champion
(16:45):
and one of the faces of the league. He signed
a Nike contract the gear Lebron came in the league
for forty million. Lebron signed a Nike contract coming into
the league for ninety million. Okay, he felt like that
was a big pressures point. The drama in Cleveland of
him not getting over the hump, you know, being with
(17:07):
the number one seed his last two years there and
not getting it done, you know, struggling in his last
playoff series with the Calves. I think he thought he
knew what adversity was, and he had seen a lot
of it, and frankly, he had overcome a big portion
of He hadn't become a champion yet, but I'm sure
he felt he was going to get there, and so
when he came to Miami and there was just the
(17:30):
only the only thing I could describe was nightly venom.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
The regular season began in the most venomous possible setting,
Boston's TD Garden. It was where Wade and the Heat
were eliminated in their previous postseason and where Lebron had
so many duels with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.
It was the Celtics, remember that also knocked out Lebron
in his last game as a Cavalier. This crowd was
(18:03):
ready to be the first to mock this Heat super team,
and Miami's primary characters gave the crowd plenty of ammunition.
Speaker 11 (18:10):
Eighty three seventy two.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
Bush crowd started in with the overrated checks. We're in
game one.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
If you recall, there weren't many returning players on this
Heat team. It was Wade Eudonnis Haslam, Mario Chalmers, James Jones,
and Joel Anthony. After that, it was a brand new
group trying to create chemistry. Well, it was obvious in
the opener that chemistry was still to be discovered. The
team that was supposed to challenge the all time wins record,
(18:44):
according to some, scored all of eighty points in a
dud of a debut in Boston.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
This is a work in progress.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
We feel like we all know, Rome wasn't built in
one day, you know, so it's going to take time,
and we understand that we have to keep on making
progress every day and she continued to get better.
Speaker 8 (19:01):
We just missed shots. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
Yeah, we miss some easy shots and never were able
to get into a proper rhythm.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
But that's not a reason to panic. Right now. This
is one of eighty two.
Speaker 12 (19:16):
You know, I'm sorry if I won't thought we's gonna
go eighty two and zero.
Speaker 8 (19:19):
It just ain't happened.
Speaker 5 (19:20):
Players that were starting are getting heavy minutes at the
beginning of the season. Players like starting point guard Carlos
Arroyo and reserve Eddie House would barely be playing by
season's end, or, in the case of Arroyo, not even
on the team. Throw in the skilled duplication of Lebron
and Wade, and the uncertainty and how to use Bosh effectively,
and it meant the Heat started that season fairly uneven.
(19:43):
They weren't lost, as you could easily get over either.
They each seemed to come dressed with one enormous red flag,
and said flag would be waived on every sports themed
talk show in America until even Heat fans were in
a panic. There was the opener in Boston where they
all looked like strangers. There was the second loss to
the New Orleans Hornets, led by a Mecca okafor the
(20:06):
big man had a twenty six point seventeen rebound performance
and it was a major concern for a Heat team
with questions at center. There was a loss to Utah
where Paul Millsap went nuts with forty six points, unearthing
more holes in the Heat defense.
Speaker 11 (20:21):
He gives it off the pall.
Speaker 13 (20:25):
Can you believe that?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
One point?
Speaker 11 (20:29):
Gay at the buzzer? Millsap the follow up and all yeah,
is that he knows it.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
There was another loss to Boston, this time in Miami,
where Ray Allen hit his first seven three pointers and
Wade was two for twelve from the field for a
lousy eight points. Then there was a loss to Memphis
without Wade, where Rudy Gay hit a game winner over
Lebron Rudy for the win.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Yes, yes, yes, the night.
Speaker 14 (20:59):
Was on when the ball left his hand and he
is the hero knock him down a big shot over
Lebron James out stressed armed.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
There was a loss to Indiana where the Heat scored
just seventy seven points at home and Wade had the
worst shooting game of his career, one of thirteen from
the field. There was the game, the Heat got dominated
by Dwight Howard and JJ Reddick to fall to eight
and seven. On the same day, President Barack Obama told
Barbara Walters the Heat needed time to gel. It had
(21:31):
reached a presidential level of concern. Then there was game
number seventeen in Dallas. The Heat would fall to nine
and eight and have a player's only meeting afterward. It's
pretty obvious because it's in the title, but a player's
only meeting does not include coaches. That was particularly notable
after this contest, however, because during the game there was
(21:52):
an incident that had some questioning the head coach, Eric
Spolstra and his relationship with this super team. As the
team was headed to the huddle a timeout, Spolster was
walking onto the floor as Lebron was walking toward the bench.
The two collided, Lebron's right arm bumping into Spolster's right shoulder,
despite the fact James was looking in Spolster's direction the
(22:12):
entire time.
Speaker 7 (22:13):
Under the time out there Spolster.
Speaker 14 (22:17):
Miami still has not scored in the third quarter, but
Dallas has scored thirteen unanswered points.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
Here's Brian Winhorst on the first in season controversy to
hit this Heat team bump gate.
Speaker 7 (22:31):
The bump was absolutely a message. Lebron doesn't do that
without sending a message just how far he was willing
to go. I'm not sure what I remember is coming in,
you know, I believe the game in Dallas is on
a Saturday night, there was a day off and coming
(22:54):
in on Monday or you know, whenever. The next availability
was wondering how Eric Spolstra was going to react to
a lot of speculation about his job status, and Eric
being absolutely as confident as I'd ever seen him that
entire season, and that was a huge moment because while
(23:19):
he was certainly projecting it to the media and therefore
the public, he was also projecting it to the players.
And he was doing it because he knew, despite what
Lebron's messages were, that he had the organizations backing. And
in later years it kind of came out. And it's
(23:40):
not surprising because this is kind of who Lebron is
that Lebron may have passive aggressively made some references to
Pat about trying to coach again. I'm not sure Lebron
ever actually directly called for it. I think he just
sort of influenced in his way, and you know, we
(24:00):
saw the same things happen later in his career with
other coaches, so it's not that surprising. But I actually
think that that was a valuable moment because Spolstra, knowing
that he had Riley's back, only emboldened him, and it
was kind of like, you know, a teenager testing his limits.
(24:21):
He tested his limits, he learned what they were, and
they moved on from there.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
We've already established a level of pressure placed on Lebron
after joining Miami. His vision of how this was going
to go didn't start out nine to eight. The obvious
place to set the blame was on the head of Spolstra,
who happened to only be in his third year in
the seat. Lebron's mission to come to Miami and be
stamped a champion wasn't going to be ruined by some
(24:47):
novice headman, especially when a legend was in the organization
in pat Riley, and he'd already done one in season
rescue routine for his five oh six championship team when
stan Van Gundy stepped down after twenty one in games.
As Windhorse explained, the heat would stand by Spolstra even
after some let's call it nudging from Lebron, but as
(25:11):
former Heat point guard Mario Chalmers tells it, Lebron almost
had to kick the tires on a Riley return because
Lebron didn't come to Miami to fail. He was in
the process, in his mind of chasing and eventually surpassing
the careers of Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, the players
he watched and idolized. Brian and Jordan had a head
(25:32):
coach in common while earning their rings, and for Lebron,
a basketball historian, he figured he'd need a similarly experienced
leader with which to pair, and he'd say as much.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Here's Chalmers.
Speaker 13 (25:47):
I would hear business pieces of it, But I know
bron biggest state was he's never had let me not
say the wrong thing, A highly successful culture, a highly
started out at the coach. You know, Mike Brown was
a good coach, was a good coach.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
He never had his Phil Jackson.
Speaker 13 (26:07):
Right there, you go, that's perfect way to say. He
says that he said that multiple times on the team
in the locker room. So I don't think it was
more of anything against Spoe. I just think I mean,
I think Bron just wanted that person that had the
accolades and that he knows what really pushed him to
be what he came to Miami to beat, and that's
one of the greats. And I don't think he's seen
(26:27):
that from Spoe at first. But once they got it
together and you could see them form a different type
of bond, a different type of relationship.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
What the heat we're searching for was that binding agent,
the unifying experience that clarifies the mission and brings the
team even closer. At the moment, this was a team
barely over the five hundred mark, with a superstar wondering
if he'd made the right choice, and almost an entire
country reveling in its failures. This wasn't what you Donnis
(26:54):
Haslam gave up millions to be a part of.
Speaker 8 (26:57):
It was a struggle.
Speaker 12 (26:58):
I mean, we had a great, great training camp, you know,
competition wise, I think we were where we needed to be.
I think mentally, you know, it took some It took
a while to get comfortable. You know, nobody wants to
step on anybody told you know, we want to allow
le Bron to be Lebron. We want to allow Chris
to be Chris, I think Dwayne and I kind of
just took a back seat just to kind of let
those guys get comfortable, and I think that ended up hurting,
(27:19):
you know, all of us early on in the season.
But I think it's something that needed to happen. You know,
you can't just go from A to D. You got
to go through B and C. You can't skip steps,
and I think those growing pains with things we just
had to go through.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
Did the B and C Haslam reference there also mean
the Boston Celtics. No, but it would have been really
cool if it did. That's a confrontation still to come.
For now, it was just one C, the city of
Cleveland that would provide just the building block this group needed.
To this point, there was an awkwardness hovering over this group.
(27:54):
Their joy for the game, their thrill of being brought together.
It had been met with a national grown and dulled severely.
The resolve they built up during that stay in the
Air Force base was being threatened. Lebron was mystified that
he was booed, and that loss in Memphis, a city
that Lebron never scorned. He never even teased the possibility
of signing there. After a couple of steadying winds against
(28:17):
the Wizards and Pistons, the Heat were set for Cleveland,
Lebron's former home, a place he knew he wouldn't be
greeted warmly anymore.
Speaker 4 (28:26):
And then, of course, you guys play in Cleveland. Dwayne
you recently said you think you're going to need a
police escort just to get out of that city. What
is that going to be? Like him?
Speaker 9 (28:36):
That's gonna bring my camera.
Speaker 8 (28:38):
I just want to get the footage.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
I think it's get a lot of booze that night too.
Speaker 6 (28:44):
You know, it definitely won't be a warm reception, but
it's another game, another challenge for us to deal with
adversity throughout the course of the season, and.
Speaker 9 (28:55):
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
I've got a lot of memories with those fans, and
you know, I'm gonna see a lot of fans seen
every single night for those forty one home games every season,
plus playoffs.
Speaker 8 (29:05):
But I'll be on the other side of sound.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Thank you to ESPN for that bite. It's one of
the developing themes of this Heat experience. It was even
more of a harrowing homecoming than anyone could have predicted.
Speaker 14 (29:17):
For seven seasons, Lebron James Moore, the colors of the
Cleveland Cavaliers. Then came the decision, and tonight comes the return,
and moments ago he took to the court in.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Cleveland, just off Lake Erie Is, the building once called
Quicken Loans Arena. On December two, twenty ten, Rachel Nichols
(29:52):
was one of many journalists who parachuted in to witness
the Return of the King.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Do you sort of think, Okay, we know what sand
behavior is like, and what a difficult or tense situation
is like, and absolutely none of that prepared any single
one of us for what it was going to be like.
I have never before or since been in an environment
like that. I have been to thousands of games in
half a dozen sports. I have been covered Super Bowls,
(30:18):
I have covered World Series. I have covered other players
returns to cities they used to play in. I have
never ever seen or felt anything like that. And when
I say felt, the feeling is is that the building
was vibrating. And I don't mean that is a euphemism.
I mean that there was so much noise and so
much sound that you could put your hand down on
(30:40):
the table in front of you and it was vibrating
a little bit. The players would say later as they
were gathering in the pregame locker room that it felt
like the fans were in there with them, that's how
loud it was. And they actually had to cover They
call it the vomitatorium, which is a ridiculous name, but
it's the tunnel where players walk out from the locker
room onto the court. That area had not been previously
(31:03):
covered in Cleveland, and they actually covered it for that
game because they were so worried about what fans were
going to throw at the players. And I was their
court side and I saw a battery land in front
of me, so I know those were being thrown, and
who knows what else from other parts of the building,
to say the least, at the names being called of
(31:23):
these players, and went way outside the bounds of what
is appropriate on a basketball court. And I want to
be careful because you know, there's give or take, twenty
thousand people in that building, and I am sure that
nineteen thousand, five hundred of them behaved completely appropriately, But
the fact that you did have a vocal and physical
minority of fans that didn't really change the experience. And
(31:49):
one of the things I noticed as all of this
chaos was going on is that Lebron James, with his
headphones on as he was getting ready for the game,
looked like he had no idea that all of this
was happening outside those headphones around him. And of course
he did, We all know that he did. But the
fact that he was able to maintain that barrier and
(32:10):
that mental piece in that environment is one of the
more impressive things, frankly, that I have seen. And we
saw how he played during that game. He played like
he felt and you could see it.
Speaker 7 (32:22):
Now.
Speaker 15 (32:23):
It's me I stuttered for the visiting why every heat
at four six from Saint Visit Saint Very High School
Lubber six labroad day.
Speaker 5 (32:38):
Windhorse, like myself was in the building as well. I'd
been there probably a dozen times in my career to
that point. And when I say the air felt thick,
it's the only way I could explain it. Everywhere you
looked there was a sign of tension. The oxygen literally
felt different than it did outside. Windhorse had spent countless
(32:59):
nights in that fiding, none were like this night.
Speaker 7 (33:03):
Yeah. So I remember walking into the bowl and I
don't know, maybe it was just a perception, but everything
felt different. The light felt different, the air felt heavy.
You could just feel it. I mean, you know, typically,
you know before games, you know, there's just sort of
(33:24):
just one hundred different things happening, you know, and you
know it's all sort of unfocused. It's just sort of relaxed.
Everybody's eyes in that room were on one person, and
you know, the Calves were not calming it down. They
were putting him on the scoreboard. You know, when Calves
(33:46):
owner Dan Gilbert came in, they put him on the
scoreboard as he walked in, almost like it was a
some sort of fake boxing match to sort of, you know,
pit him as the opponent, even though they're laughably not
combatants on that court. It was very uncomfortable. It was
uncomfortable for me. I can't imagine what it felt like
(34:07):
for Lebron and the absolutely brilliant, just soul sucking, emboldening
at the same time performance in the second half that
Lebron had rena row.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
That's when teams get better of Lebron. James is just
Lebron fire here in this third period.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
Just killing that crowd with spectacular execution.
Speaker 9 (34:37):
This is not there now.
Speaker 6 (34:39):
He did say coming in this game, he knows all
the spots on this floor and he's going to every single.
Speaker 15 (34:44):
One of them.
Speaker 11 (34:45):
So Lebron is taking us tollicks pat to Cleveland. Lebron
James of a heap, facing this hostile crowd all night long.
It's an easy win, and you know that they are
happy to get out of towns the back hallover for
Saturday night's meeting with Atlanta. The Heat with a third
straight win. They go to twelve at eight.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
And it broke the Cavaliers because they were a bad
team that was doing okay, and they ended up losing
more than twenty in a row after that, and the
Heat basically had one loss for the next six weeks.
That was as pivotal of a regular season game as
you'll ever see it.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
Lebron finished that game with thirty eight points, twenty four
of them coming in the third quarter.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
He added eight assists and didn't even need to play
in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 5 (35:38):
He was talking to players on the Caps bench after
a couple of impressive buckets. It looked like the joyous
version of Lebron, at least for one game, was back,
and as a result, it appeared the Heat turned the
corner with such vigor they couldn't even see it behind
them anymore. The one eighteen to ninety dismantling of his
former franchise would be the third of eleven straight wins
(36:01):
for Lebron in the Heat, and it would be part
of a stretch where Miami won twenty one of twenty
two games. What team did Miami lose to in that span?
That would be the Dallas Mavericks, the team Miami lost
to during Bumpgate that got this whole role started. It
would provide a bit of foreshadowing, helping establish the Mavericks
as one of the Heat's primary rivals in this era.
(36:24):
But another rival would also emerge in year one, the
Chicago Bulls, and they would soon bring this red hot
Heat team to actual tears.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
When Dwayne Wade had two meetings with the Bulls, he
didn't have that second meeting for fun.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
The questions got louder. The joy for a lot of
people got heightened by They're not good enough.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
They're not good enough.
Speaker 13 (36:52):
They're not good enough, They're not good enough.
Speaker 9 (36:54):
That's the game.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Within the game.
Speaker 12 (36:55):
You know that people you forget, but it's a real
war out there.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
It's not check as it's.
Speaker 12 (37:01):
Chest, just gonna beat him up. I'm making physical and
once again that's right up my alley. I told you
they wanted me to be here for a reason. You know,
they sacrificed for me for a reason. So once again
I'm gonna give them their money's work.
Speaker 7 (37:15):
I believe that the pressure got to him, and I
think the pressure got to him in Dallas, and so
what made me wonder if something within him had been broken.
Speaker 12 (37:24):
Lebron James comes in front of him, they do the
little rap video punch thing and all that.
Speaker 8 (37:28):
I remember it like it was yesterday.
Speaker 12 (37:31):
And then it was like from that point on Dirt
and Jason Terry went on Demon time.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Four years. If he does a production off iHeartRadio and
the NBA
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