The Miami Heat’s ‘Championship Before the Championship’ Celebration, 9 Years Later

On today’s Pardon My Take, two-time NBA Champion Chris Bosh joined the show to talk all things basketball, Harry Potter, his legacy, and playing with LeBron James. Of course, each of Bosh’s titles came with the Miami Heat, winning back-to-back championships in the 305. That Heat dynasty was one of the most polarizing teams in basketball history, and a big reason why the squad had such a big target on its back was a result of what happened on the night of July 9, 2010.

After the Heat re-signed Dwyane Wade, and added LeBron and Bosh, it was time for the 2010 Summer Heat Welcome Party at the American Airlines Arena. Yup, you know exactly what celebration I’m talking about:

During today’s interview, Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter dove into that night with Bosh, who was honest about how it all went down:

Mr. Cat: I would imagine after you get in the hallway, you’re like, was that kind of weird? We just celebrated a championship when we just signed.

Chris Bosh: No, we weren’t celebrating a championship. Look, I love talking about this because it’s so interesting because we got blamed so much for it. It’s like, man, I’m not an event planner! What the hell do you think? I’m just going to, like, sign a contract, bring my whole family out to Miami, and then orchestrate this big thing? We came there and that was there. People were there for us.

Mr. Commenter: I thought you were on stage before like positioning the smoke machines, making sure the lights were hitting you, you know I need one on each side to get cross-steam.

Mr. Cat: But did anyone say to LeBron, like yo, did you just say we’re going to win seven?!

Chris Bosh: That part, you know what, that’s one of those things where everybody’s so happy and you’re just like, “Yeah! Yeah! Let’s just go for it!” You’re not thinking about what everybody else is going to think about it. You know, everybody’s happy. It was more so of an intent.

Mr. Cat: I would quit Twitter, too, if I was a part of that championship celebration.

Chris Bosh: (Laughing) Yeah. Championship before the championship.

Mr. Commenter: That’s a good watermark to stop reading the comments online.

Chris Bosh: That was probably like that next day. You know, it’s funny because we were in our bubble, about two days later, you start watching TV and it’s like ohhhh. You see what the rest of the world sees.

Mr. Cat: There is also the element that I’m always curious about: playing with LeBron. I feel like it brings added pressure to everyone around him because he’s such a star and there’s always so much attention on him. Did you feel that right away?

Chris Bosh: Yeah, but it was like gas on the fire after that one [celebration]. It was already a thing, and then it was just something totally… I mean, it transcended and transformed more than what I thought. But you know the championship pressure. I wanted to win a championship. That’s what we were all there for. So, we knew what we were getting ourselves into, kind of, until we experienced it.

It’s really cool when an athlete opens up about something like this. It really was no joke how much of a villain the Heat had to play day in and day out over the course of those four years down in Miami. Of course, things didn’t start off so well after dropping the 2011 Finals to Dirk and the Mavericks, so this celebration paired up with the team coming up short of the ultimate goal definitely wasn’t a good start to the reign.

But, we know what happened next: 2012, dominate the KD-Russ-Harden trio to get Bosh and LeBron their first rings. 2013 looked like it was going to be disastrous as well, until….

“Rebound Bosh, back out to Allen, his three-pointer…. BANGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG”

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