Back in July 2010, LeBron James left Cleveland to "take his talents to South Beach" and join the Heat, as he so famously said when announcing "The Decision."
But after returning home last summer and announcing he wanted to bring a title to Cleveland, Dwyane Wade says his longtime friend and now former teammate feels a different responsibility to win in Cleveland than he did in Miami.
"I think he has more responsibility of feeling, 'I need to do this for the city' than in Miami," Wade said. "He didn't have [any] ties [to] Miami. He wanted to win for himself.
"I think now, it's winning it for the city, for the community. He wants to win it for Ohio, and bring a championship there. He brings that there."
Wade sat next to Chris Bosh at media availability Friday, just as they have each of the past four years as teammates with the Heat.
The third member of the "Heatles," however, sat several tables away, as James was situated next to his Cavs teammate, Kyrie Irving, instead.
It's just one of many new realities that Wade and Bosh have had to deal with this season in Miami, where they have limped into the All-Star Break with a 22-30 record — a far cry from their wild success alongside James over the past four years — in a season that seems like the most excitement they'll get from it will be from trying to scrape into the playoffs, as opposed to chasing a fifth straight trip to the NBA Finals.
"It's been a tough year for us trying to figure everything out, with the injuries and such," Bosh said. "But with everything that's gone on, we've kind of taken the mindset to utilize this time to get away from the game, deflate a little bit and rejuvenate ourselves to make a run."
While both Wade and Bosh have been excellent this season, they have both missed time with injuries. Wade isn't playing in Sunday's game because of a nagging hamstring injury, having been replaced by Hawks guard Kyle Korver.
Meanwhile, Josh McRoberts has missed virtually the entire season with a knee injury and Luol Deng has been up-and-down, which has helped land the Heat in the position they're in — fighting for one of the final playoff spots in the very weak Eastern Conference.
But with the emergence of big man Hassan Whiteside over the past few weeks, giving Miami an athletic center with a defensive presence to play next to Bosh, the Heat are optimistic that things will go differently if they can keep their starting five healthy and together over the final 30 games of the regular season.
"That's been our goal," Bosh said. "That's the only thing I'm asking for. I'm not asking for wins, I'm not asking for anything. I'm asking for us to be healthy, us to have our guys to have continuity, to where our starting five develop consistency and our bench can develop consistency.
"I think we'll have a good enough chance if we have that."
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