LeBron James Return To Miami Heat A Real Possibility If Lakers Break Up Is Looming?

LeBron James Return To Miami Heat A Real Possibility If Lakers Break Up Is Looming?

Welcome on in guys. Toby here with you and thank you for checking out the channel. Hope you’re doing well out there. If you guys haven’t subscribed already, why haven’t you? You know, I feel like you should. That’d be kind of cool. Sometimes I look and I’m like, “Hey, there’s a lot of people who watch us haven’t subscribed yet. You get a notification. You can put on bing and you get a notification every time we go live.” Or maybe you just like to be uh riding the algorithm wave, baby. Maybe that’s how you do things. Either way, I appreciate you for watching. If you guys could as well do a radio show every single weekday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on 5:6 WQAM. That is the home of the Miami Heat. And I do it with my guy Leroy Horde, Frog Boy, Jay Fig. We have a great time. We get silly. We do a live. Do you have a chance to be in the live chat if you have YouTube or Twitch every single day? So, if you guys could subscribe to that as well, please do. And we talked about this a little bit on Friday. We were having fun. I always like to say that July is a fun time in sports talk, right? Because there’s nothing really going on. Like we have summer league, which of course I appreciate everybody tuning into the recaps. Um, and we will have trades and sometimes we will have the most seismic decision in franchise history, like the decision, which has happened in July before. I remember the decision 15 years ago. Um, I remember the decision first. I remember Chris Bosch and Dwayne Wade agreeing. I was on my honeymoon with my wife 15 years ago. Um, and I remember there was some chatter. Social media is kind of just starting to buzz and there was chatter that like, hey, this could be a thing. I remember I believe Wade and Bosch, I feel like, announced it together on PTI, which at the time was the biggest show in sports talk. And then we were all waiting for the next shoe to drop, which was of course LeBron James. I come back from my honeymoon. I am new uh I’m not new at the station, but I’m uh younger at the station. And at the time, I’m producing nights. I’m cutting up a lot of sound. I’m producing some Marlins and some Panthers games. So, cutting up highlights and I’m just starting to dip my toe in the water of hosting radio shows. Um, and so as a kind of a bottom man on the totem pole, you are on these like night shifts and we were all sitting at the studio. Um, and we were awaiting the decision and I remember it just taking forever because there was a lot of thought. There was there was people were talking that day like, “Hey, I’ve heard that there’s this party reserved. I’ve heard that there’s a lot of chat. This is going to happen.” And then of course we get the infamous Taking Your Talents to South Beach and the rest is history. We hosted a radio show that day. I remember it was myself. David Allen was uh was producing running the board with me and co-hosting with me. The time the decision happened, we went live and we hosted all the way up until Sedano who was doing mornings at the time on 790 the ticket. And we didn’t even have the Heat at the time. the Heat were on uh they were on a news channel back then and then I think what actually happened is I don’t remember what happened but the Heat were able to the Heat ended up leaving them in the middle of the first big three and we got the big three at 790 the ticket like game three or four. They weren’t on 560 at the time and uh we ended up getting the heat like game four or five of the NBA season of that season and it was a it was a game changer. So people were listening to those games and they were tuning in the next morning and we were celebrating the whole time. What a time to be alive. What a time to be alive. It was a really really great time. And then um I will say when LeBron James went back to Cleveland, it was uh it was it was a heavy heavy blow because I think we had spent a lot of the time everybody hating the fact that this team was put together down here and never really thinking that him going back to Cleveland, who was a joke of an organization, was ever really a possibility. And you know, the team felt blindsided. if you don’t know the history, you know, go fill yourself in. So, there was a real time. It was bad, man. I mean, it was it was it was petty times between LeBron James and the Miami Heat and uh to the point where the Heat got so blinded by it that it feels like it even cost their relationship with Dwight at a point and they ended up letting him go to Chicago. But, uh there’s an old saying, man, time heals all wounds. And it does feel like that relationship and all the hardships over the years has really really really thawed and there is not this animosity anymore. It was really bad, but a lot of wounds have healed over that time. And you know, you had LeBron going to Dwight’s final game and there was an embrace with him and Pat Riley in Brooklyn. And there has been a lot of uh there’s been a lot of reminiscing, a lot of respect on Spo, you know, coach for team USA. And we saw this past year even LeBron James with uh Bam Adabio. Lot of respect there. I think he had posts even on Instagram. I saw Drew Smith post saying an old IG post from last year with Haime, Bam, Spo, and LeBron all taking a selfie and LeBron posting heat culture past and present. And you’re like, man, this feels like yeah, things are about as good as ever. And the one thing I will say, the Miami Heat, as as bad as it was with LeBron James, they never did with what they did with Jimmy Butler this year. Remember, Jimmy Butler leaves, they trade for Andrew Wiggins. Andrew Wiggins wears the same number as Jimmy Butler and they gave 22 out in a heartbeat. And I didn’t like that. I was like, I think that’s going to be I think that’s a bit of a a rough one. But not my it’s not my organization. And there’s obviously a lot of hard feelings. And some even say that that’s one that’s not even ever going to be thought. I don’t tend to believe that. I do again think time heals all wounds. We’ll see. Um, but right now it’s at a point where, oh, they don’t care about giving somebody else the number. They don’t even know if they’ll ever put up Butler’s numbers in the Raptors. I think that would be a mistake, but again, it’s not my organization. But they never gave away number six. They never gave up LeBron’s jersey. They never gave it to anybody else. They uh they didn’t have any inkling. Nobody came here asking for it or if they did, wasn’t even a thing. And uh I bring all this up and I I do the history lesson to get to where he’s at right now and that is with the LA Lakers. And I I joked about this a couple of weeks ago when all the Andrew Wigan stuff was happening and I was like I even and you guys could go see but I said on Twitter I was like ah that’s the aging star that Pat Riley was talking about right because you guys remember Pat Riley he was asked about the aging star thing. I think it was by Ethan at the uh at the at the end of season press conference. But then days later, the Heat randomly posted like screenshots with the quote and it was, “Are you comfortable with the idea of managing an aging star?” And it said, “For us, yes, if that player is the right name, I still think that an aging star can play.” And then the Twitter account goes, “Open to the right fit for us.” And I was like, well, that’s we all thought that was a uh to KD. We all thought that that’s what that we were under the impression that this was a KD thing. Well, we know apparently the Heat, they were kind of going for a low ball offer on KD. He’s not here. He’s a rocket. And the Heat didn’t get an aging star. They got Norman Powell, which a great move by them. They got basically Norman Powell for nothing. But with what’s going on with LeBron James right now, one has to wonder because everybody just keeps seeming to think that he doesn’t seem all the way in on the Lakers. One has to wonder, is there going to come a time where LeBron James is going to say, “Hey, out of here.” Because what’s happened over the last couple of days with this has been very interesting. Very interesting. LeBron has this statement that comes out from Rich Paul after he opts into his $52 million contract and basically is like, “Yeah, but we still want to evaluate. LeBron wants the chance to win a championship.” Okay, basically. And then the Lakers get sold and Luca has this whole tweet where he’s like, “Oh, you know, welcome to the new owner. I forget his name. And glad that Genie is staying on. Look forward to winning championships.” So then there’s this big feature on ESPN by Brian Winhorse, Ramona Shelburn, the guy who’s probably most associated with LeBron, the guy the the the woman reporter who is probably most associated with reporting on LA. And you know, Ramona, she she she gets that she’ll she’ll dig deep onto these things, right? Can’t get my headphones to stay on, right? Um, and it was interesting that in this article it was talking about like the Lakers are already like they have their set date of when they want to part from LeBron James. They were talking about how they had like, you know, the dinners with Luca and they’re ready for the Luca timeline and that even that Luca got the heads up of the sale and LeBron didn’t. And I kind of felt like, whoa, that’s a bit of a change right now. I don’t know if this is going to end with LeBron James asking out. It feels a little though reminiscent of the final year in Cleveland where, you know, they were it was clear a breakup was going to come, but he still stuck it out through the year and that was that. But last year, I mean, let’s not forget the Lakers drafted his son. The Lakers hired JJ Reic as their coach who was at the time LeBron James podcast co-host, no coaching experience. And you know, they had Anthony Davthony Anthony Davis, his his agency running mate on the team. And now it just feels like the Lakers are ready to pivot. They’ve gotten this godsend deal of Luca, who maybe he’ll sign the extension, I don’t know. But I think LeBron feels a little like, what is going on here, dude? I think he feels a little disrespected. No extension talks, thinking that this is just going to be the last year. You just sold for 10 billion. Took you out of the dark ages. You know, like that was another part of the article where it’s like, you guys were missing the flash for five straight years, a franchise long. I come here, win a championship in two seasons, and you guys are sitting here like not telling me about the the franchise’s moves. It’s pretty crazy. Mind you, this is a legend. This is LeBron James, you know. Can he do annoying things from time to time? Can he be uber passive aggressive? Yes, absolutely. Of course. Not losing sight of that. Of course not. But one has to wonder how disrespected does he feel? And does he feel disrespected enough that he’s ready to hight tail it out of there? Because this team though having LeBron and maybe a shredded Luca and just getting DeAndre Aiden who’s a you know not in the greatest shakes right now as far as his NBA stock is concerned. Does he really want to stick out an awkward a situation he feels some type of way about, especially with a team that, you know, maybe isn’t going to be able to really compete in a just vaunted Western Conference? So, if he does ask for a trade, how likely are the Miami Heat to get involved in something like that? I have no idea what the answer to that is. I don’t know if LeBron James would be interested in coming back to Miami. I don’t know if the Miami Heat are interested in getting LeBron James. But what I would say, why would the Miami Heat be interested? Let’s start with them first. Well, let’s look at it like this. The Miami Heat could actually pull off this trade because they have the salaries to make it work. And they’re not daunting salaries. So, it’s not like the Lakers are going to be hamstrung by anything. We already know that the Lakers have been trying to get Andrew Wiggins. He would basically be like half of the salary on that. The other part of that would likely be Terry Roier who’s an expiring contract. Then you have to you would obviously probably have to take Bronny back too. And I would think it would look something. The way I put it into the trade machine was like this. It was LeBron and Bronnie for Wiggins, for Roier, for Haywood, and for Haime Hawkins Jr. and that was enough to make the trade machine move with the aprons, with the roster spots, and that gave me a successful return. So, I’m going to make that the premise of where they’re at right now, where they got to be with uh with this deal. And uh that’s what it came back and spit back to me as successful. Doesn’t mean anybody’s going to take it. Doesn’t mean it’s a deal that’s good enough. I’m just telling you that’s the deal I’m going to roll with right now. I’m not here I’m not for the Miami Heat giving up first round picks. I’m not for the Miami Heat asking for first round picks. I’m just here asking would the Miami Heat be interested in a LeBron James swan song season or two and you know being in a position where the team looks at this and is like all right we have him here on a roster that’s kind of like his career right now getting towards the end he’s not quite the best player in the world anymore who can push push everything and take, you know, the Cleveland Bums all the way to a finals against the Spurs. And he’s not the greatest specimen athlete we’ve ever seen on the planet with Dwayne Wade anymore, but he’s also pretty damn good. And he was what, second team AllNBA last year. Takes impeccable care of his body. And the Miami Heat have one other thing going for them, which is they play in just a dumpster fire of a conference right now. Boston with no Jason Tatum, Pacers with no Hallebertton, the Knicks, who are like probably the best team in Cleveland who are there, but nobody seems to really respect them as like, oh, runaway favorites to get this done. And I think those are probably the other two teams we would look at in a situation like this. But here’s the thing. Cleveland’s in the second apron, so they got to shed a ton of salary to even make something like this work. It would only be, I believe, what’s been reported on a buyout scenario. So maybe that’s what they think. But here’s my thinking on it. I don’t think LeBron James wants to give up a damn dime. And so would he rather come to Miami, you know, relive that chapter because he’s already done the coming home to Cleveland thing. And it really is never going to get better than that for LeBron James. You left Cleveland, everybody hated you for it. You returned, you won the championship like you said you would. It only it it doesn’t get better than that. You come back to Miami. You’ve already won twice here and you get to play for a coach you know you respect in Eric Spolstra. You get to play next to uh a center or power forward in Bamaio who we know he’s got a good rapport with from team USA. You got two really vaunted shooters in Tyler Hero and Norman Powell to play with. At times you can have a lot of threat and Kell wear on the floor with him. You know, you got you you could put Nico out there in some shooting lineups with him. It’s an interesting roster of pieces I think to put around LeBron James. Do I know if it’s a favorite to win a championship? No. But if you’re going to tell me that’s a something you’re not going to tune into every single night to see what it is and he’s not going to have a chance to actually what do we always say that he really need a true point guard. I mean LeBron James at his heart of arts has always been really a point guard. Now they probably got to take some pressure off him at his age but it’s not like it’s not going to be in a place where he is in the most comfortable place he is in his basketball career with the ball in his hands. So I don’t know. I think that I think from the Miami Heat standpoint, if you’re talking about we’re basically from the Heat standpoint, here’s what it is. You’re trading three expiring deal or two expiring deals, a deal we know they’re trying to trade in Wiggins and one young guy in Himeay just because it’s like, hey, fresh start and we’re getting Bronny James back who we think we can turn into. Oh, I think we had to take Gabe Vincent back in the trade. Actually, now that I think about it, when I did this because of Ross response, I think I had to take back Gabe Vincent, too. It could be Maxi Cleba, I think. But like I just made it Gabe Vincent cuz heat culture, you know. Maybe that’s too many small guards now on the team with Bronny, Pella, Gabe, um, DaVon, like you probably need to you probably would need to move on. You may need to flip Gabe somewhere else for something else, but just for the sake of making the trade work, that’s what it was. And he’s making he’s on an expiring 11 million contract. So, I I just looked at it and I was like, um, is that a I mean, is it No one’s going to think it because no one’s going to think LeBron’s going to be interested in the Miami Heat because the Miami Heat are looked upon right now as a a maybe above playin team at their best. We, you know, 56 at their best, maybe four. And so they’re like, well, would LeBron, but if you added LeBron to the Miami Heat and you add him with two all-stars and Tyler Herro and yeah, some exciting young pieces, a borderline all-star and Norman Powell. Um, and you know, the other thing is if it went to the Knicks, like, okay, the Knicks, let’s say they want to trade Carl Anthony Towns for him. It’s like, yeah, that’s cool, but they have a point guard and a guy who has the ball all the time in Jaylen Brunson. That’s Jaylen Brunson’s team. And the one thing we’ve always said about the Miami Heat right now is Bam’s tremendous. Tyler’s really talented, but they need a dude. They they need a guy who’s like, “No, ball ball in my hands. Let me make the decisions. Let me have all this.” And whether it wins a championship or not, I think it’s a very competitive team. And he gets to probably get to go out on his terms a little bit. He gets to he doesn’t have to go to a fourth organization in his career. Um, and I do think that there would be a level of Heat fans because I think it’s interesting that team was so impactful and his time down here was so impactful in making everybody um, big-time basketball fans that I think people would be super into seeing him here. I think the question is it would would he be into that? I don’t know. I mean, like look, they’re in Vegas right now. the Heat. He’s in Puerto Rico traveling with uh or partying with Bad Bunny. So, you know, it already seems like he’s getting ready for the soundtrack down here because we know Bad Bunny loves him some Heat games. But it feels like to me they would get an answer on that. Like if they were in Vegas summer league and you see Rich Paul who that relationship’s been better, too. They had Alec Burks on the team last year. Clutch had like a a big hand or some hand in the Miami Heat uniform deal with Robin Hood this year uh last year and they put that in the press release. So, I think that’s cool. Uh it’s been said the relationships are mended. They’re in better places. We know Riley is not the same petty guy. He’s very He’s emotion. Well, we know that he can be with the Jimmy Butler thing. I shouldn’t say that. I shouldn’t I shouldn’t bury what had just happened. But I do think that with this um I I definitely think that it feels like the from the Heat standpoint, I think that they I I think it’s at a mended place where they would welcome it because it’s like what are you doing? It’s not like the guys committed long term. And then let’s even just say he wanted to eek it out of here. Let’s just say he the Heat wouldn’t want LeBron James’ final season. They wouldn’t want to to tie in on that. I don’t know, man. The only thing that would I guess deter the heat is if they really feel like there’s something down the pipe and then if like I guess that Giannis trade did shake loose well now you can’t trade LeBron because he has a no trade clause. Um and then you have to trade you know it’s kind of like you if you have those big salaries and that’s the big thing is like if you have those big salaries in Terry and Wiggins the downside is this is your year to do it. And so like if a Jiannis deal shakes loose in the middle of the season and he really wants to come to Miami and he did have that awkward exchange with Aishow Speed and I guess Speed lives in Florida and he was explaining about Florida tax and he goes and then he had like the most insincere is he playing in Milwaukee and he’s like probably is that a what is that a bird church? What I was like wow I don’t know how I’d feel about that if I was a Milwaukee fan. Um, so that’s the only thing I can see with the Heat is if they’re really like, oh, if the whole point of this is like we’re trying to hope like hell that Giannis really wants to be on the Miami Heat. So, and Miami, that’s another one where like Miami’s got to use their intel here, right? Like they got the tie with Bam. Bam is going to Greece. Bam, you hanging out with Giannis in Greece? Let us know, dude. Goi, anybody over there, let us know what Giannis is thinking. But if Giannis truly is going to go through this season and he’s going to stick it out of Milwaukee one more year. I mean, is this is this wild? like is this is this is this one of those things where if you’re the Miami Heat and you are basically tied into this where it’s like and also he’s at the last year of his deal like if it didn’t work out then okay then it’s over then he can go I guess wherever he wants next year more teams have cap space they’re more you know they’re more situated with it um and for the people who are like I don’t want the LeBron drama I don’t want the you’re the same people who are like, “Oh, I’m bored. This isn’t happening. There’s nothing moving the needle. I don’t like this.” And we know that the Heat aren’t go like with the Norman Pound, we know the Heat aren’t going full youth movement. They’re going some youth movement. Um, and this is again, you’re basically replacing Andrew W. In my mind, I look at it like this. I’m replacing Andrew Wiggins with LeBron James. That’s how I’m looking at it, right? Like I’m looking at it as you’re replacing Andrew Wiggins with LeBron James. Who’s not into that? you know, at its heart of hearts from a basketball standpoint. You’re not into that. It’s a little bit weird because they would be traded for, you know, there would be another LeBron James, Andrew Wiggins trade. Um, and look, maybe Andrew, maybe this all simply is just, hey, Andrew Wiggins is going to end up in LA and they’re going to do a band-aid year and let’s see, they’ll roll up the dice and and if the Heat, again, I’ve said if the Heat can get a first round pick for Andrew Wiggins, grand slam of an offseason. But can’t act like this isn’t something interesting that’s popped up. And I look around the league and I’m like, where are the options for LeBron James? It doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of obvious landing spots of people who either a want to do it or b have the capability of doing it. The Heat, they have the capability of doing it. I don’t know about their desire or his desire to return here, but there would be an element of for everybody who doesn’t recall Miami LeBron James, not Heat fans, you’re going to be like, “Oh, we’re reflecting on the best era of LeBron James basketball there ever has been. the most championships he’s ever won with a franchise the last time he won an MVP, which is kind of crazy when you think about it. But I don’t know, man. I can’t say that I haven’t thought about it. Even as me, I was a card carrying member of Team Petty. I wanted that Lakers championship. I wanted them to beat the Lakers so bad. Another Gorand Dragage what if in my life of with Goron’s foot and Bam’s arm. You lose him in the finals. You know, you don’t have Goron. He’s playing on one leg. He even tries to come back. Bam. Can’t even do a push-up and he’s playing in that series after he goes down for the first couple. Of course, that was a of course I wanted the Heat to beat LeBron James and get the one up on him, the grand petty of them all. But now it’s over. You know, the heat of the heat of not they did not come up on the the right end of that battle. LeBron not only won with Cleveland, they won he won straight up against the franchise. And so, you know, and now it’s wondering, all right, if the Lakers aren’t providing LeBron with the respect that he feels he deserves, Cleveland would be the obvious one, but it’s a little hard for them to make moves. They obviously are closer than Miami based on their regular season last year, but again, not as simple for them to make the deal as it is for the Heat. So, I wonder if that I just wonder if there’s going to be a dinner in Vegas with Rich Paul and the boys and if there’s going to be ironically instead of flying to Vegas and being basically asked to gravel with the trophies. Now, could Vegas People do wild things in Vegas. They get married in Vegas. They gamble in Vegas. They see crazy circuses in Vegas. You see fights, you know, Manny Pacquiao is fighting in Vegas next week. things from 2013 rekindling a little bit. So maybe a little conversation is had, you know, maybe at the blackjack table and we can see we see if if uh if something wild and crazy could happen. But the mechanisms to make it happen aren’t that weird. Just a matter of would he want to be here and would the he want to rekindle that relationship.

Tobin reacts to the Lakers drama with LeBron James. Most of the Heat-Lakers talk has surrounding adding Andrew Wiggins to LeBron and Luka Dončić but if there is truly frostiness between James and L.A. now would the Miami Heat be a viable new destination to finish off his career?
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