After four seasons and two championships with the Miami Heat, LeBron James opted to return home to Cleveland in the summer of 2014. That decision (a reversal of “The Decision”) stunned many, as he was leaving Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to join a Cavs team that the season prior had gone 33-49, with the best player being a young Kyrie Irving.
Now in his third season back with the Cavs, James opting to return to Cleveland doesn’t seem so confounding as he’s gone to back-to-back NBA Finals and brought the Cavs their first title in team history by overcoming a 3-1 deficit to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals. While James is happy back in Cleveland, the Heat are still trying to pick up the pieces following James’ sudden departure three years ago.
Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade are now both gone from the organization, and Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra have been left to figure out how to handle a rebuild. In an interview with Harvey Araton of The Vertical in which he offered thoughts on and advice to Magic Johnson taking over the Lakers, Riley admitted that of all of the things that have happened in his tenure with Miami, James leaving as a free agent in 2014 remains shocking to him.
“Since I came here, we’ve had the same owner, same president, two coaches, same support staff,” Riley said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys working for us who played for us. Players come and go, great players. When LeBron left, that was the most shocking thing to me – not to say he was right or wrong – and the most shocking thing to the franchise. But our culture is the same. You have your up years and your down years, but what can’t change is the way you do things.”
James’ departure, followed by Wade to Chicago and Bosh’s blood clot issues, left the Heat scrambling to put together a roster with big money going to Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic. The Heat have not recovered from James leaving yet to be a contender in the East again, and the path back to that point is still unclear.
Miami got off to a terrible start this season, but a hot-streak over the last two months has them scrapping for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. The reward if they get there? A trip to Cleveland to face James and the Cavs in the first round.
