When LeBron James joined the Miami Heat in the summer of 2010, most expected him to become a multi-time NBA champion and the face of the league for years to come. That did happen, but Year 1 was a mess.
Miami made the Finals but got stunned by the Dallas Mavericks, with LeBron delivering one of the worst superstar performances in Finals history. While many still saw LeBron as the best player in the league after that series, the doubts still skyrocketed. And apparently, those doubts weren’t just coming from the outside.
According to former Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, Pat Riley and the Heat weren’t fully convinced. Appearing on a “Playback” stream, Arenas claimed that Miami actually tried to trade LeBron to the Orlando Magic for Dwight Howard, suggesting that they could win without him.
“This is breaking news. Miami Heat after the motherf**king Dallas, tried to trade LeBron James to Magic for Dwight Howard,” Arenas said. “They felt the way that LeBron played against Dallas, they didn’t need him… Chris Bosh was like their all-purpose player, and they were trying to trade him [James] to try to get a big man down there.”
Gilbert Arenas says the Heat tried trading LeBron for Dwight Howard in 2011 after his Finals loss, seeing Bosh as their all-purpose player 😳
“Him and Pat Riley were fighting over power.”
(🎥 @WatchPlayback ) pic.twitter.com/wuGF4nGH2M
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 14, 2025
