D-Wade says he had 'inkling' LeBron might leave Heat as soon as Pat Riley messed with his cookies
02/26/2025 07:27 PM
Miami Heat stars Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh formed one of the more dominant trios in the history of the sport.
The threesome won back-to-back NBA titles and made even more appearances in the championship series. The stars could have maybe accomplished even more if they had stayed together for a longer period.
James spent just four seasons with the Heat before he signed back with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2014. Wade recently said that when Heat president Pat Riley messed with James’ cookies, he had an “inkling” that the writing was maybe on the wall for the forward’s time in Miami.
D Wade says the first moment he thought LeBron might leave MIA is when Pat Riley took his cookies
"One thing you don't do, is f*ck with LeBrons cookies… 4 finals in a row. You don't need to micro manage us, I felt Riley went too far with his micro managing"
(Via… pic.twitter.com/KAoVWA9cWX
— Heat Culture (@HeatCulture13) February 26, 2025
“This was the first moment where I had a inkling that Bron may not be back,” Wade began. “One thing you don’t do is f— with LeBron cookies. No, no, no, no, no — this is serious. He loves chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies and ice cream he loves, right?
“And so, when he gets on the plane, Bron walks on the plane with a bag of food. One bag is all cookies, and the other bags are what his chef has prepared for him to eat ’cause he eats a certain way. He don’t eat what’s on the plane. But, he have his cookies.
“So, we get on the plane, and we play cards at the front of the plane. We play cards, and then at some point, Bron gonna be like, ‘Hey, bring me those cookies!’ And this one day, he was like, ‘Aye, where my cookies at?’ And they had to come up there and whisper in his ear and tell him that there were no more cookies on the plane. That motherf—– sat back, away from the game. He pushed the cards back. He sat there quiet, doing his head like this.”
Wade said James sat there and stopped playing cards. According to Wade, Riley went “a little too far” with his micromanaging at times.
James is considered by many to be a Heat legend despite only spending four seasons in Miami, something that speaks volumes about the level of player he was during his time with the franchise. James has won four MVP awards across his NBA career, and he earned two of those awards playing alongside Wade on the Heat.
He was named the MVP in consecutive seasons in the 2011-12 and 2012-13 campaigns. Both of those seasons ended in championships for the Heat. He also never finished outside of the top three in voting for that award in any of his seasons in Miami.
It’s seemingly very much within the realm of possibility that the golden era of the Heat’s history would have spanned a bit longer if James had re-signed with the Heat in 2014. Miami — by all accounts — still had the makings of a title contender before his departure, as the team was on the heels of its fourth NBA Finals appearance in a row at the time.
No team in the Eastern Conference gave the Heat all that much of a run for their money in the 2014 NBA Playoffs. The Indiana Pacers were the only team to force a Game 6. Miami didn’t have to play an elimination game in the 2014 postseason until the NBA Finals came around, a series which the team lost in five games.
It’s unfortunate that the brevity of James’ stint in Miami has long had some Heat fans dreaming about what could have been.
The post D-Wade says he had 'inkling' LeBron might leave Heat as soon as Pat Riley messed with his cookies appeared first on Heat Nation.
