Pat Riley Says Shaq, Not Big Three, Was Heat’s Most Important Acquisition

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Sorry LeBron James, Alonzo Mourning and Chris Bosh… Shaquille O’Neal was the most significant trade acquisition in Miami Heat history, according to Heat president Pat Riley, at least.

The Riley-Shaq partnership ultimately soured after just three-and-a-half seasons, but Riley claims that Shaq gave the franchise “real legitimacy” and set the stage for the formation of the Big Three in 2010.

“The Big Three was a nice little thing at that time that fit in to a glove. Chris and LeBron were tired of losing in Toronto and Cleveland. Dwyane was a big asset to it. Miami was a big asset to it. Those guys were ready to move on. We had the room to do it, and they came.

 

“But the seminal moment to make us really, really legitimate, also to get us the marketing clout, the global clout, and also he delivered on the championship promise was Shaquille… Getting Shaquille changed everything.”

With Shaq set to be inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame next Friday, Riley took a moment to put Shaq’s career in Miami into perspective:

This is not, Pat Riley stresses, revisionist history. And it also is not, he insists, getting caught up in the moment that will have Shaquille O’Neal this coming Friday becoming the third former Miami Heat player to enter the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

 

“I’ll say this, and I mean this,” Riley says during a relaxed moment this past week, “Shaq’s acquisition was bigger than any acquisition that we ever made, including the Big Three.”

 

[…]

 

“The seminal moment,” Riley says, “to really make us really, really legitimate. He turned our franchise around. He gave us real legitimacy.”

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Pat Riley says Shaq, not Big Three, was Heat’s biggest acquisition

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After losing both LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in free agency over the span of the last two years, it seems like Miami Heat president Pat Riley wants to close the book on the Big Three era.

In a recent interview with Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Riley claimed that trading for Shaquille O’Neal in 2004 was a bigger acquisition for the team that convincing James and Chris Bosh to join forces in South Beach with Wade in the summer of 2010.

“I’ll say this, and I mean this: Shaq’s acquisition was bigger than any acquisition that we ever made, including the Big Three,” said Riley. “The seminal moment to really make us really, really legitimate. He turned our franchise around. He gave us real legitimacy.”

In fairness, there’s an argument to be made for both. O’Neal was at the end of his prime when the Heat acquired him from the Los Angeles Lakers but was still the most dominant center the league had seen in quite some time and was had for a steal of a price (Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler, and a first-rounder that became Jordan Farmar). The Diesel would prove a formidable running mate next to Wade as the Heat won their first NBA title in franchise history in 2006, which really established them as an organization to be reckoned with.

But on the other hand, the basketball world had never seen a coup on the level of what Riley pulled off in 2010 by bringing together the Big Three, ushering in an era that netted the Heat four consecutive NBA Finals appearances and back-to-back championships. It was those years, led by Wade, James, and Bosh, that truly cemented the Heat as one of the Association’s marquee franchises and a premier destination for free agents.

Truthfully speaking, the Heat wouldn’t be where they are as an organization today without either of the offseason triumphs in 2004 and in 2010. So there probably isn’t one definitively correct answer, even if the significantly less successful summers of late probably have left Riley somewhat bitter.

H/T ProBasketballTalk

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