Pat Riley on the truth behind the Miami Heat’s signing of LeBron James and Chris Bosh and his one regret

This was the first time a super team was formed with three stars in one. It was an attempt by team president Pat Riley to win as many championships as possible in a short period of time and keep up with the dynasty that the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers had created.

The team will be remembered for its ups and downs. While many teams today are trying out the superteam concept, many don’t shine.

Pat Riley talks about the creation of the super team

It’s not often that the formation of the first-ever superteam is discussed by other players, coaches or members of the organization. There will be a time when James, Wade and Bosh will meet to discuss building the team. Meanwhile, Riley spoke about the process on the OGs Show with Udonis Haslam and Mike Miller.

He explained: “2006, the year we won the title, was the year that LeBron, Dwyane and Chris Bosh all signed their contract extensions. It is no coincidence that they were all represented by CAA.

“So they all signed. And then we looked at the contracts with options and all that stuff. We saw that each of them would be free agents in 2010.

“So I said, Andy (Elisburg), okay, ‘we’ll have this’ in three, four years. I said if we don’t trade for one of them, I think one day we might have the opportunity to sit at the table with LeBron, with Chris and Dwyane, or with all three.

“And so from that day on, Andy went to work making sure we had enough space to sign all three in 2010.”

The demise of the first super team

In James and Bosh’s famous debut in Heat uniforms, James promised the birth of a new dynasty. It would be a dynasty in which there would be not one, not two, not three… up to seven. Afterwards, James said he really believed it. In their first season together, the Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals.

They won two straight titles by defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 and the San Antinio Spurs in 2013. The Spurs reached their next NBA Finals in 2014. This Finals loss would spell the end of the superteam, as James left the team to return to Cleveland.

This was a disappointment for Miami and its fans, as they felt short-changed by the process without further investment from James. It still leaves a feeling of disappointment for Riley, who knew more was possible and could have been done.

“It didn’t upset me, but it hurt me that we couldn’t keep the team together because I think it was a team with five or six championships. I really do if we could keep them all together and stay healthy from that standpoint. But the nature of the game is what it is.”

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