One of the tough games was Spain game Europe, Like 17.

They cut it like one or two, and then you guys went on a run and close them out at the end.

And that's where I think, really That time and place was when the conversation started to get serious about, you know, with LeBron James with Dwayne.

Chris Bosch was obviously there.

You're there about can we?

Can we do this in the N B A?

Is there a way that we can play together?

And all of a sudden, here comes 2000 and 10 and those guys were working on the Miami thing or initially?

I mean, there were other options.

There was like, maybe it would be New York.

Maybe would be Chicago, but it's gonna be Miami.

But you had signed when those guys had done four years with a player option.

You had done five with a player option and you got left out of it.

I think looking back, is there any doubt in your mind, the Big Three in Miami would have been LeBron d Wade in Melo.

Well, it probably wouldn't depend.

It probably wouldn't end.

It came up like that.

It probably would have been me and LeBron somewhere and d Wade and Bosh somewhere, right?

Like it was always, you know, after that, the talk Waas You know where we going, like, where can we go, like, where could we partner up at?

What could we team up at, You know, like this is too good that we want this feeling forever.

Like we want to experience playing with other great players like we want that.

Where can we go?

You know, it was it was options.

There was a lot of options out.

There was a lot of conversations out there and, you know, and and at this time, you also you start throwing Chris Paul into the mix.

Now it's like, you know, it's all of these conversations was had and, you know, it was just random random conversations.

But it was like, What would that be like?

Because for so long, so long Prior to that, the MBA awas everybody had their own team, you know, way wasn't teaming up with nobody.

You know, it was I had Denver.

Brown had Cleveland the way Miami.

You know, C p was in New Orleans, AI Philly.

You know, T man kills like every Kobe Lakers.

Everybody had their own teams, so nobody was really teaming up like that.

So that was a part that was a part of my decision making and not signing a shorter term deal because I was out of all of us.

At that moment, I felt the most comfortable in the most confident in my situation in Denver, we were winning.

We were having, you know, some with some success.

And we were We were building off previous years, So it was like, No, I'm not.

I didn't want to sign a five year.

I mean, signed a three year deal with the option.

No, I wanna I wanna be here long term, like, this is my team.

This is my organization.

This is my city.

I wanna be here long term.

And that was my thinking at that point in time.

But also I didn't understand the business of the game.

You know, I didn't understand what really going into a lockout mean that next year or, you know, get into a team or signing signing a three year deal as opposed to a 45 year deal Being a free agent.

I didn't understand that information.

I didn't I didn't fathom that.

When you're talking about that in Oh, wait.

Would Kobe ever be involved in any of those conversations that he even?

Was he commenting on listening to the Oh, I was the only one in the West, right?

So it was I was always connected some way somehow the Lakers some way somehow.

And it was, you know, it was conversations off.

Oh, come on.

Like you wanna come to the legs of what?

Like it was, you know, it was it was that like, let's make this happen.

And it was just like, I don't think I could do it because we fight.

We battle each other.

Every single mean like we fighting each other every night.

We having battles, I don't know If I don't know if I could do that.

I don't know if l A is actually on the radar at that point.

I don't know if nobody was on the radar at that time when you think back to it?

If it played out that way, where D Wade and Bosch went somewhere and you and LeBron paired up?

Where do you think it would have been?

Honestly, I don't I don't know, man.

I don't know.

It could have been New York, you know, it could have been No, it could have been New York.

Um, I didn't see no other place of us of us going.

Um, it could have been Miami.

You know, we we all could have went down there to Miami.

I don't know if there was, you know, it could have been away with all four of us.

Could have got to Miami.

Um, Wade had to take pay cuts.

But I think at that point in time, you know, those guys took pay cuts.

Anyway, At that point in time, it was just like what?

What's the numbers look like?

You know, could we really do this or not?

So I don't I don't know where we were ended up that I just don't know.

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