Wade: LeBron and I considered joining Bulls in 2010
The Heatles of South Beach (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh) had a mighty fine run atop the basketball world for four seasons, advancing to the NBA Finals each year and capturing the championship in 2012 and 2013.
Wade was with the Heat at the time of his unrestricted free agency, with James and Bosh both coming over after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors, respectively. But it was the Chicago Bulls - Wade's current team - who were initially on Flash's radar, and could have been his team six years ago had it not been for some financial tinkering by the Heat.
The 12-time All-Star told reporters Thursday that he and James were strongly considering becoming Bulls, but Bosh's decision to head to Miami and the organization's ability to house all three players ultimately changed things.
"Chicago was very tempting from a standpoint of what they had on the roster when it came to young talent," Wade said, according to CSN Chicago's Vincent Goodwill. "But when it came to the point Miami was able to get three players, that changed the whole dynamic of the summer."
"But I know LeBron's eyes were here," he added, "I know my eyes were here. I know Chris' eyes were kind of everywhere because he was in Toronto so he was just happy that people knew who he was (laughs). Toronto was a little different than it is today."
It being his hometown, Wade had strong enough ties to the Windy City and its franchise that signing with the Bulls made a lot of sense. The idea of heading there with another star (either James or Bosh) and, as he mentioned above, joining a young core of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, and Luol Deng was also enticing.
As Wade pointed out, though, the "Chris Bosh effect" is what changed the course of history.
"(Miami) had the opportunity for us three to play together and we both (he and James) separately really wanted to play for Chris Bosh," Wade added. "It was gonna be kind of a sense where Chicago could've got two players and it probably was going to be LeBron and Chris or me and Chris."