LeBron's Drama With the Lakers Proves Once Again How Well Miami Handled Him

Stop me if you've heard this story before: LeBron James' current team is considering firing its head coach and trading half its roster in the middle of the season. It's a tale as old as, well, LeBron — one told every four years or so, like the third form of Olympics you never knew about.

It's happened everywhere LeBron has been. Everywhere but Miami, that is.

That shit didn't fly here. As hard as LeBron tried to make it a thing, it never became one. Because the Miami Heat is and always will be bigger than one individual player, even if his name is LeBron James. No exceptions. No outliers. None of that bullshit.

Lebron effect:

• Coach loses all authority
• disjointed locker room
• roster instability
• media circus
• trade everybody mentality
• heighten bitchassness
• front office/ownership manipulation

— BRine (@BASSicallyB) February 3, 2019

The Lakers are in a bit of turmoil. They're a .500 team with a roster of unproven but semi-intriguing players mixed with has-beens on one-year deals. Rumor is the team is considering firing head coach Luke Walton in favor of a veteran coach, possibly Jason Kidd.

This team will not beat the Golden State Warriors anytime soon. Everyone knows this, especially the Lakers, which is why they're trying to blow up their roster in a trade that would net them All-NBA New Orleans center Anthony Davis.

It's freakin' chaos in Los Angeles. Just like it has been everywhere LeBron has played — except Miami.

LeBron tried it here. And the media went along. But nothing happened.

Erik Spoelstra was never seriously in danger of being fired. Pat Riley squashed that idea the minute it came up. LeBron had a choice — listen to Spoelstra and conform to the Miami Heat way of doing things, or take a hike. He chose the former. It worked out well for him.

Miami never tore up its roster while LeBron was here. It might have happened if the team hadn't won the 2012 NBA Finals. Bosh would have likely been dealt. But it didn't. The Heat only signed free agents such as Ray Allen and Shane Battier to improve. Any deals the team made were part of a desperate search for a center or a point guard who could be relied upon.

In Cleveland, LeBron had Mike Brown and David Blatt fired. Multiple rosters were scrapped in the name of finding a combination that pleased the King. The same seems to be happening in Los Angeles now.

Avoiding LeBron drama might have been the most important reason for the Heat's success in the Big Three era. And those two titles and four straight trips to the NBA Finals are to this day the best of his entire career.