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When the Miami Heat's Big Three of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh formed in 2010, it received a lot of negative reactions from fans. They were still in their primes and were the leaders of their respective teams before they joined forces in South Beach. It didn't sit well with a lot of people, and Wade, James, and Bosh were pretty much hated by almost everyone during their four-year run with the Heat.
Wade told Sports Illustrated's Rohan Nadkarni that it wasn't easy for them to deal with the hatred they got, especially during their first year together:
“Everyone was loved individually, from what we did in high school, college, NBA, and then it all turned into ‘Aagghhh,’ ” Wade says, sounding surprised all over again. “Everywhere we went, people looked at us differently. The fans talked to us differently. We were taken aback by all the negative attention.”
Wade added that it later became one of their biggest motivations to win:
“The hatred part of it really got to us. This is what they want, this is what they’re going to get. That kind of mentality was a tough way to play basketball, with the whole weight of the world on your shoulders. So we were going to show them.”
LeBron also admitted that the negativity changed how they were playing, and they made sure to fix that as soon as possible:
“We had gotten away from playing with passion and pure love of the game, so it humbled us and refocused us. It got us back to saying, ‘Let’s just have fun, let’s play for one another, let’s understand why we came together.’”
Dwyane Wade and the Heat bounced back from a rough start and made it to the NBA Finals before a shocking upset against the Dallas Mavericks, which only brought more criticism. But Miami then went on to win two straight titles by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012 and the San Antonio Spurs in 2013.
