Pat Riley Reveals How He Constructed Contracts for Heat’s Big Three

The team president unpacks Miami's epic free agency bid.

Oct 23, 2024; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat president Pat Riley addresses the crowd during the Pat Riley Court dedication ceremony at halftime at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Ahead of the Golden State Warriors' dynastic explosion on the NBA scene in the mid-2010s, LeBron James was the toast of the league.

The superstar combo forward had been riding high heading into the 2014-15 season, having led the Miami Heat to four consecutive titles during his four straight seasons with the club. He claimed a pair of championships (and Finals MVPs) with the Heat in 2012 and 2013, alongside fellow Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. He ditched Miami in 2014, after losing the Finals to the San Antonio Spurs. James formed a new "Big Three" by returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency, alongside fellow future Hall of Famers Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. But those Cavaliers clubs fell 1-3 to Golden State, who went on to win four total titles in six NBA Finals berths. James won his fourth and latest championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.

Heat team president Pat Riley recently hopped on "The OGs," the podcast hosted by his former Miami charges Mike Miller (who won with Miami in 2012) and Udonis Haslem (who's won titles with the team in 2006, 2012, and 2013), to talk about how he put together those star-laden Heat squads, starting with the club's free agency bid for James, then with the Cavaliers, and Bosh, then with the Toronto Raptors, in 2010. Wade, too, was an unrestricted free agent, and he took in meetings with several rival franchises, most notably his hometown Chicago Bulls, whom he'd eventually join in 2016.

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"So we had enough room for three guys and Mike [Miller]" to bring on in free agency, Riley said. "We had to trade Michael Beasley — and I love Mike, I think Mike with you group of guys, you would have brought him along in a great way. He might have led the team in scoring. We had five guys that we could start that team with, and then we could started adding a bunch of minimums and stuff like that. But it wasn't until we got Shane [Battier] and then Ray [Allen] and Chris Andersen [that the team reached its full potential."

After losing the 2011 NBA Finals in a six-game upset to the Dallas Mavericks, the Heat did indeed retool over the summer, bringing in combo forward Battier, an analytics department's dream player, in the offseason. The next year, fresh off notching their first title with their core of James, Wade and Bosh against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Heat poached 10-time All-Star and future Hall of Fame swingman Ray Allen from their arch-rival Boston Celtics in free agency, while shoring up their frontcourt by signing energy big man Andersen. Miami bested the Spurs in a seven-game NBA Finals for the ages.

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