Miami Heat: Was it Fate or Collusion?

So "The Chosen One" made his decision and "chose" the Heat.

Just like two days ago, when Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh "chose" the Heat among all their suitors.

Really? Do you believe that?

I don't—and here's why.

The only way all three players could "choose" the Heat is if the Heat had enough cap room to accommodate all three players. Lo and behold, the Heat did.

The Heat managed to trade Michael Beasley for basically nothing.  Beasley was the second pick in the draft two years ago, and they gave him away.  For all of their other players, they made sure all of their contracts expired at the end of the 2010 season except, of course, for Mario Chalmers.

Had none of these players chosen the Heat, Miami would have had the worst team in NBA history on tap for the 2010-2011 season.  Quite a risky move for Pat Riley and the rest of his executive team.

Unless, of course, there was no risk involved.

Mike Greenberg of ESPN was asked this morning if he thought LeBron really made up his mind Thursday morning.  Greenberg said, "No.  I think he knew where he was going to go two years ago."

I think the players agreed to do this back in 2007 and 2008.  I think that's why LeBron gave up in the playoffs last year, why Miami completely gutted their roster, and why the Heat have been madly trying to dump Beasley for weeks.

That's also why they gave Mike Miller a Thursday deadline for signing their offer.  If Miller were going to accept their deal, then they would give Beasley away for nothing.  Otherwise, they would hang onto him.  But they had to know which one would be on their roster before they sign Wade, Bosh, and James to their contracts.

This all stinks to high heaven. If the players colluded, what can you do?  But the issue is that the Heat were in on it and worked for a couple of years to get their roster to a place where they would have virtually nothing left. 

Had the Heat not been actively in on the plan, there would be no way all three players could sign on the same team.  Yes, sign-and-trades could have happened, but you cannot execute this strategy and rely on a sign-and-trade. Remember, Cleveland made it very clear they would not do a sign-and-trade for LeBron.

The Heat had to have room for three max contracts and prepared diligently to make that happen.  That is the only explanation, but that is not sufficient. The Heat would have required more than Wade's word that the other two were coming to blow up their roster and risk destroying the franchise.

Imagine the Heat without the Big Three: a franchise that would lose 60 games a year for the next five years, at minimum. That is a huge risk to take—unless there was no risk.

Something stinks here, and it is not just LeBron's PR team.