LeBron James' Miami Heat tenure might seem like a footnote, a four-year tour stop in his illustrious career. But 2010 to 2014 is arguably the most critical stretch of his professional life.
That's when James became a two-time NBA champion, cemented his status as the best all-around player in the game and won two of his four MVPs on the shores of Biscayne Bay. The run fulfilled the promise his great talent demanded from the moment he was drafted in 2003.
And while returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers for a third tour would seem like an ideal finish to his career, going back to Miami is simply the best fit. Both in terms of the basketball -- "He can go to the Finals with Miami," a former teammate of James told ESPN -- and the narrative.
The hurt feelings from his somewhat cold departure in the summer of 2014, when James gave Heat president Pat Riley what amounted to a cursory meeting in Las Vegas, were obscured by the joy many felt over his return home to Northeast Ohio. Just as his departure to Miami four years earlier was met with anger -- from the fans who burned his jersey to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's salty and somewhat laughable letter outlining James' apparent betrayal -- overtook the earthshaking move of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh teaming up in the most Hollywood of circumstances.
That summer of 2010 was the birth of the modern NBA, in a sense. The Heatles begat Kevin Durant joining the dynastic Golden State Warriors in 2016, and the fumes of that stunner in part drove angry owners to create this most recent collective bargaining agreement and spark the league's eight-year run of parity. (The Heat and Warriors are the only two franchises with multiple championships in the past 15 years.)