LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh apparently met over the weekend in South Florida to discuss the possibility of playing together next season for the Miami Heat.
Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball — Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James — met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade’s Heat.
One source did label Miami as the new frontrunner to land James in a package deal with Bosh and a re-signed Wade but also cautioned that James was “non-committal” with the start of free agency fast approaching.
Earlier Monday, Fox Sports Radio’s Stephen A. Smith reported on his morning radio show and via his Twitter feed that James and Bosh have committed to joining Wade in Miami. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, in a report on its website Monday afternoon, quoted a source close to Wade as saying that the 2006 NBA Finals MVP “believes his team is poised to pull off a free-agency coup” by signing James and Bosh and re-signing Wade.
Chris Broussard is on SportsCenter as I type saying that the trio left the meeting “without a verbal commitment” because LeBron has been “non-committal.” He’s torn about leaving Cleveland and is intrigued about playing for the Bulls.
Unless Pat Riley is able to move Michael Beasley, this trio would currently have to take less-than-max money to play together in Miami. Currently, the Heat have enough cap space to sign three players at contracts that start at $14.7 million per season, but the fact that Florida has no state tax is a big ‘pro’ in the Heat’s favor. If pragmatism outweighs egoism, the trio could create a dynasty for the next five seasons in South Florida.
I wonder about LeBron’s willingness to join a franchise that has won a title recently and is known around the league as ‘Wade’s team.’ If he’s mainly interested in winning championships, Miami may be the place to be, but there are other factors involved, no matter what LeBron and his camp say. The other issue is that if the three do join forces, the expectation will be that they will win a title every year, and anything less will be a major disappointment.
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