Super teams in sports are nothing new, having been around since the 1970s, especially in basketball.
But the term
Big Three alone takes fans back to that fateful day in 2010 when
LeBron James announced that he was taking his “talents to South Beach.” He’d joined up with NBA champ
Dwyane Wade and
Chris Bosh, who’d left the
Toronto Raptors to create a trio that went to four straight NBA Finals.
The journey yielded them two championships, and other teams began implementing the Big Three strategy in hopes of recreating the magic.
But on a recent
episode of The Pat McAfee Show, James’ agent and childhood friend Rich Paul shuns the idea that there ever was a Big Three on the Heat because James and Wade were actually a two-headed monsters.
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“I always love a big two. I don’t really love a Big Three,” Paul said around the 18-minute mark. “People talk Big Three, but the Big Three thing has never really worked. And you’ll say, ‘Well, what happened in Miami?’ That wasn’t really a Big Three.”
Paul explains Bosh’s role on the team, applauding him for willingly playing in the shadows and using his basketball knowledge to contribute to two championship-winning runs.
“There were three guys that went in the lottery, and they did really well individually on their teams, so they put up big numbers, and had big accomplishments,” he continued. “But when you think about it, Bosh was the ultimate professional. He took a backseat and he played a role in which, because he had such a high IQ, and he was such a professional as an individual, his approach to everything is what made that work.”
He prefers the idea of a Big Two with a deep bench.
The comments are rubbing Bosh fans the wrong way because it’s essential to remember that Bosh brought a stacked resume to Miami as well.
He was picked fourth in the 2003 draft—wedged between Wade and James—after he had already been named ACC Rookie of the Year. He then went on to be named an NBA All-Star for 10 consecutive seasons before he was forced to retire due to medical issues in 2019
So while he may not have been on the superstar level of Wade and Bosh, downplaying his contribution to the league has rubbed some the wrong way.
See how social media is reacting to Paul’s comments below.
