6. The Decision
You knew it was coming and it would be much higher if this list were based solely on cultural impact, but since this moment did not take place on the court it will have to land just outside the top 5. On July 8th, 2010 LeBron James infamously announced he would be joining the Heat on South Beach.
This was an absolute spectacle as LeBron announced in his own one hour national television special on ESPN (at least the proceeds went to charity) that he would be leaving his hometown Cavaliers (LeBron was born in Akron, Ohio) whom he promised he would win a championship for (which LeBron had failed at up to this point) to join two of the best players in the league, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, to form a “Big 3”, of young superstar players in their primes ironically all drafted in 2003.
Players now switch to teams they want with regularity, but this is only because LeBron chose to leave Cleveland in search of greener pastures during the 2010 offseason after being beat by Boston’s, “OG Big 3”, (formed through trades rather than free agency in 2007) of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. At the time LeBron became the biggest supervillain in league history for leaving his hometown team to the point of comic book level repercussions.
There were protests in the streets of Cleveland and multiple videos of fans burning his jersey in angry mobs, banners and posters were removed and team owner Dan Gilbert wrote an infamous letter bashing LeBron ridiculously proclaiming the Cavaliers would win a championship before “the self-titled king wins one.”
LeBron, now one of the most beloved athletes in the world after going back to Cleveland, was the most hated athlete on the planet when this move happened, but it paid off in the form of four Finals appearances (including an epic meltdown in 2011) with two back-to-back championships.
The ridiculousness didn’t stop here as LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh hosted an epic, “welcome party”, where they did boxer style entrances coming out of a tunnel on stage with fireworks and Boombastic rap beats (Simon Says by Pharaoh Monche) with fans surrounding the stage.
The final ridiculous proclamation of the big 3 era was made as LeBron said on stage the Heat would win, “not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven” championships. They won two, but between a 27 game win streak, two MVPs for LeBron, four Finals appearances in all four years together winning two and spawning incredible memories of three incredible basketball-playing friends teaming up, it was a success.