Three is the magic number? It's a very important number for the Miami Heat entering the 2013-14 NBA season. Not only is the team looking to net its third NBA title in a row, but the team also could be witnessing the last year that its "Big Three" of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh play together as all three of them can opt for free agency in the summer of 2014. Bosh has offered a solution to keep all three of them in Miami: win another championship this year.
"Everybody wants to know what we're going to do [after the season]," Bosh told The Sun Sentinel" Yeah, I get it. Everything depends on this season. If we win, cool. If we lose, that's when it's like 'What if?'"
Bosh said he was shocked that it's been four years since he moved from Toronto to Miami following the 2009-10 NBA season, but knows there will be a lot of question marks surrounding the trio of Heat superstars entering the 2013-14 campaign.
"I couldn't believe it," Bosh told the Sun Sentinel Wednesday. "I was like, 'Man it's been four years already? But we're professionals. We know it comes with the job. We can't do anything about it. We just have to make sure we take care of our business, stay together and just really answer the call to adversity when it comes."
It will come sooner than expected as the questions regarding the summer of 2014 free agency class are destined to loom around the Heat's locker room throughout this season.
Bosh, James and Wade all led the Heat to the NBA finals the last three years. After dropping their first Finals together in 2010-11 to the Dallas Mavericks in six games, the Heat got it right in 2011-12 with a 46-20 record in the shortened season en route to capturing gold after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in five games.
The team upped the ante in 2012-13 finishing a full length season with a record of 66-16, showing an all-time high in chemistry while earning the top spot in the Eastern Conference after finishing the prior two seasons as the No.2 seed. Miami then disposed of the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers before toppling the San Antonio Spurs for its second consecutive NBA title last spring.
Bosh believes if they do the same in 2013-14, perhaps that's the recipe to keep all three stars together in Miami as the Heat prepares to become the first team to win three consecutive titles since the Los Angeles Lakers became the fifth team in league history to do it from 2000-02, and the first team to appear in four consecutive finals since the Boston Celtics did it in 1984-87.
"You think about it but I'm mature enough to know that if I really start to think about it, I'm going to start playing bad," Bosh told The Sun Sentinel. "Things aren't going to go right. I'm just going to enjoy today. I'm looking forward to having a big year this year. That's all I think about. In Toronto, it kind of messed me up. I was thinking, 'What is going to happen [in the offseason]?' I started struggling and then I snapped back into basketball."
Bosh averaged 16.6 points per game last year while James averaged 26.8 points per contest and Wade averaged 21.2. The team can only hope to continue leading the Heat again this year, as nothing is promised after that.
The decision for all three men will come down to how they do this year, and more importantly, what their families want as James recently married his high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson while Bosh indicated his family loves it in Miami.
"It's on," Bosh told the Sun Sentinel. "My family enjoys it here. I enjoy it here. It's playing basketball in Miami. It's just the best. I think all those intangibles speak for themselves. We're really looking forward to just keeping it going,"
Whether or not all three of them keep it going past 2014 is up to them.
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