When you think of Miami Heat’s biggest acquisitions to date– LeBron James and Chris Bosh are usually the first to come to mind. But if you ask Heat President, Pat Riley, he has a different answer.
According to Complex, Riley told Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an interview recently:
“I’ll say this, and I mean this. Shaq’s acquisition was bigger than any acquisition that we ever made, including the Big Three.”
Heat landed O’Neal back in 2004, after the Los Angeles Lakers failed to come to terms with a contract extension, and Riley refers to the deal as “the seminal moment” that turned the franchise around, and “gave us real legitimacy.” And not when they acquired LeBron or Bosh, interesting.
O’Neal averaged 20.6 points and 9.3 boards per game in his three and a half seasons with Miami, and also helped (keyword being helped), lead the team to three consecutive playoff appearances.
It’s quite evident that Riley is still a salty about LeBron leaving to join the Cavaliers, and let’s not forget failing to even mention Bosh at all.
He might not consider them pivotal to organization, but there’s plenty of others who do.