Ruining LeBron James and Dwyane Wade’s Plans, Knicks Paid Hefty Price for Billionaire James Dolan’s Mistakes in 2010

There was a time in the early 2010s when New York was this close to having the superteam of everyone’s fantasies. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh were reportedly on the verge of joining Carmelo Anthony on New York Knicks. However, they ended up with the Miami Heat. Instead of Melo, D-Wade stuck with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller and got Bron and Bosh in the bargain. Many people involved in this near miss have different versions of this story. Gilbert Arenas rehashed it and blamed the Knicks head honcho, James Dolan, for skipping the team of a lifetime.

“When Dwyane Wade, [Chris] Bosh, and LeBron [James] decided to team up, they was not playing in some one city. So they can all be fresh. So they were planning on going to New York together,” Arenas revealed on Gil’s Arena. “And what happened is because they didn’t tell anyone, Dolan made a mistake by paying Amar’e Stoudemire. They [James, Bosh, Wade] didn’t want to play with Amar’ Stoudemire because they had their own goddamn Big 3.”

The result – Knicks’ loss was Heat’s gain. “Because New York f**ked, they call Micky [Arison] and say, ‘Hey, Micky, this is what we want to do. Can you make it happen?'” Where the Knicks owner let down the trio, the Miami Heat owner Micky Arison came through. The structuring back then was what Arenas emphasized on which would win Miami two championships. “If you knew what was going on back then, you would’ve known New York dropped the ball.”

The scenario according to Arenas was the Knicks tried to lure Mike Miller who was in this Big 3’s circle with a $60 million offer. He rejected it to join Miami for $30 million and play alongside James. Heat Culture-for-lifer, UD rejected an expensive deal and took a paycut to accommodate James in Miami. The Flash stayed Wade County and Bosh came along thereby constructing Miami’s superteam.

This infamous tale has been narrated on LeBron’s end too. One of the former Knicks player, Zach Randolph said that Dolan went overboard to bring Bron to New York, including trading Randolph, Jamal Crawford, Mardy Collins, Malik Rose, and Stephon Marbury. Leaving the Knicks empty-handed only to lose Bron to Miami is one of the reasons Dolan became a villain to Knicks nation.

Knicks owner steers clear

Dolan once tried to absolve himself of blame by claiming James was never planning to sign with the Knicks at all. It didn’t make it any better. Especially with so many NBA players contesting otherwise.

Carmelo Anthony, who signed with the Knicks in 2011, said it was a real possibility that Bron, Bosh, and Wade would’ve played in New York if things were different. But he doesn’t explain what went wrong. D-Wade said that the Chicago Bulls were keen on all three of them during the free agency season. But once they learned that Miami Heat was eager to sign them, they jumped on the opportunity.

The 2010 unrestricted free agents fulfiled their wish to form a Big 3 alliance playing for Miami. They’d lead the team to back-to-back 2012 and 2013 championships pretty soon. Miami can thank James Dolan for that.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.