LeBron’s “Decision” in 2010 will go down as one of the biggest bombshell moments in NBA history. When James went on television to tell the world that he was taking his talents to South Beach, it changed the league forever, ushering in a new era of player empowerment that has influenced how superstars have seized control of their destinies ever since.
The whole wild spectacle of it didn’t end there. Far from it. The Heat organization went on to stage an extravagant introductory event that has become almost as infamous as the Decision itself. With smoke machines, a laser-light show, and pyrotechnics, it resembled more of a rock concert than a press conference, and it also gave birth to LeBron promising any number of championships, “not one, not two…”
But apparently, the trio weren’t aware that the team was planning that level of pageantry. On a recent episode of “Cold as Balls” with Kevin Hart, Chris Bosh says that the scope of the welcome party caught them by surprise and was partially leftover from another event that was planned that week at American Airlines Arena.
“We came to the arena, and there was people everywhere,” Bosh said. “They’d made the jerseys already. Thousands of people had them. And we pulled in there, and we hadn’t even signed the contracts yet. We didn’t sign the contract until right before we shot up out the stage. We didn’t know nothing. I found out that there was a concert in town. That’s why that stage was there, so they didn’t build it for us. We were in between days of the concert.”
Regardless, it’s an iconic moment in NBA history. And for Heat detractors, it offers plenty of schadenfreude, as they didn’t quite deliver on the nine or ten titles that were promised that night, although the two championships they did win can’t be seen as anything other than a huge success.
