Joakim Noah LeBron James
Photo: Bleacher Report

New details have emerged regarding the formation of the Miami Heat “big three” superteam in 2010 and the recruitment of LeBron James.

The Chicago Bulls gave a full pitch and felt like they could land both Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

The question was if they could create enough cap space to land a third star.

It was clear that Bosh, Wade and James all wanted to play together.

The question was which team would close in on the superstar package.

After two days of meetings, the Bulls were reportedly split, as they thought they could land Wade and Bosh, but they weren’t as sure about James.

There was another issue for the Bulls; young rising star Derrick Rose wasn’t involved in the recruiting process, as he declined to be part of the pitch to land James.

Another one of their young stars, Joakim Noah, ended up being the main recruiting voice, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

Although Noah was a star recruiter in his college days at Florida, he was not the Bulls’ franchise player.

Noah and James didn’t have the greatest relationship, but Noah tried calling James to no avail, as James never called him back.

Whether things would’ve gone differently if Rose did what Stephen Curry did to recruit Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors will forever be unknown.

The Bulls could have had this starting lineup:

  • PG: Derrick Rose
  • SG: Dwyane Wade
  • SF: LeBron James
  • PF: Chris Bosh
  • C: Joakim Noah