The Miami Heat were never going to pick Chris Kaman over Dwyane Wade with the fifth overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, at least not according to franchise president Pat Riley.
Though its well-documented that the Heat were looking for a big man at the time — needing to replace two-time Defensive Player of the Year Alonzo Mourning — the one-time All-Star would land with the Los Angeles Clippers after being selected with the sixth overall pick.
That being said, the player that the Heat would have taken instead of Wade had gone before both of them already: former Georgia Tech power forward Chris Bosh.
“We were very fortunate to get [Wade],” Riley says during Wade's induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, per Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “And it would have been a dilemma if [the Toronto Raptors] would have taken him fourth. We would have taken Chris [Bosh] fifth. As a matter of fact, we needed a big that year and Chris got picked and then we took Dwyane.
“Everybody said I was going to take Kaman, but that’s not true. That was just something we put out there in the media.”
Chris Bosh x2
Chris Bosh, an 11-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion, played for the Toronto Raptors for seven seasons after they took him with the No. 4. While he wasn't the shot-blocker that Alonzo Mourning was, he still made a noticeable impact as an interior defender. When factoring in his scoring potential, physical traits, fundamentals and intelligence, it's not difficult to see why any team — let alone the Miami Heat — would have wanted him.
There were other factors to consider as well though.
For one, Dwyane Wade had a poor workout with the Miami. On top of that, Pat Riley was looking at other backcourt players, and point guards specifically.
“That year we ended up with No. 5, and I was looking at point guards and centers; that’s what we needed,” Riley says. “I had guys like Kirk Hinrich, T.J. Ford and Chris Kaman high on our list, and I was interested in them. Dwyane was on there, but at the start of the process, I wasn’t sure.”
Riley lucked out and ended up with both Wade and Bosh when the latter joined the Heat in 2010 to help form a Big 3 that rivaled the Boston Celtics. However, he certainly would have been kicking himself had he drafted Hinrich, Ford, or Kaman.
Though all talented players, none of them had the success of Wade. Not even Bosh — who ranks in the top-five in career points for both the Heat and Raptors while remaining Toronto's all-time rebounding leader — reached the heights that Wade managed.
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