“The Flash” and “The Reply” in a single backcourt? It nearly occurred, in accordance with Dwyane Wade, who stated Allen Iverson was almost traded to the Miami Warmth in 2006.
Throughout Amazon’s broadcast of the NBA Cup semifinals on Saturday, Wade stated that Warmth president Pat Riley known as him to debate the potential deal. Iverson requested a commerce from the Philadelphia 76ers in December 2006, and the reigning champion Warmth, who had defeated the Dallas Mavericks within the earlier season’s NBA Finals, had been among the many groups rumored to be pursuing Iverson.
Wade was all in on the transfer at first.
“That’s considered one of my favourite gamers,” Wade stated on Saturday’s broadcast. “And I really like him. And I used to be like, ‘Wager, let’s do it.’”
However then Riley informed Wade that ahead Udonis Haslem could be included within the proposed swap. Wade stated he rapidly modified course.
“He was like, ‘You in?’” Wade recalled. “I stated, ‘I’m in.’ He’s like, ‘We’re going to should commerce U.D.,’ and I stated, ‘I’m out. I’m out.’ That was it.”
The @MiamiHEAT nearly traded away @ThisIsUD for an opportunity to get Allen Iverson 👀 pic.twitter.com/oDpLYmuCb1
— NBA on Prime (@NBAonPrime) December 14, 2025
Wade stated that though he liked Iverson’s recreation, the purpose guard was not “going to stay up for me (like Haslem did).” Haslem, who performed 20 seasons for the Warmth, earned a popularity as among the best — and hardest — leaders within the NBA. He received three NBA championships with the Warmth and is the group’s all-time main rebounder.
“That’s my boy,” Haslem stated after Wade recounted his unwillingness to half with him. “That’s my boy. That’s why each time someone knocked him down, who got here proper behind him and made certain I knocked them down.”
Haslem went on to have considered one of his greatest particular person seasons for the 2006-07 Warmth, averaging 10.7 factors and eight.3 rebounds in additional than 31 minutes per recreation and ending 18th in Defensive Participant of the 12 months voting.
Throughout Saturday’s broadcast, Haslem stated he was conscious of the discussions between Riley and the 76ers again in December 2006, and that he “didn’t sleep for per week” as a result of uncertainty.
When NBA on Prime host Taylor Rooks requested Wade how shut the Warmth had been to approving the deal, Wade replied, “Pay attention, at any time when Pat Riley is concerned in making a transfer, you’re all the time shut.”
Philadelphia ultimately despatched a commerce bundle headlined by Iverson to the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 19, 2006, receiving Joe Smith, Andre Miller and two first-round picks in return. Iverson performed 50 regular-season video games for the Carmelo Anthony-led Nuggets that season, averaging 24.8 factors and making his eighth All-Star look for a Denver group that bowed out to the eventual-champion San Antonio Spurs within the first spherical of the 2007 NBA Playoffs. Iverson’s scoring regressed in subsequent seasons, and he completed his NBA profession in 2010.
In the meantime, the Warmth returned to title competition within the 2010 offseason, when Miami signed LeBron James in free company and paired him with Wade and Chris Bosh to type a giant three that delivered back-to-back NBA championships in 2012 and 2013.
Whereas a trio of Wade, Iverson and Shaquille O’Neal might need sounded tantalizing in 2006, each Iverson and O’Neal had been nearing the tip of the their respective primes, and managing the celebs’ personalities may have proved a problem for Riley, who took over because the Warmth’s head coach 21 video games into the 2005-06 season and remained on the bench by the tip of the 2007-08 season.
The group employed Erik Spoelstra to take over as coach the next season, Riley moved again to the entrance workplace, after which James and Bosh arrived through the subsequent offseason to type the core of one of many NBA’s defining groups of the twenty first century.
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