Big Threes have long been part of the NBA.
Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Tom Heinsohn showed in Boston that having a superstar trio on the same team can work wonders. So, too, did Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy with the Los Angeles Lakers. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in their Celtics era. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman in Chicago. Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in San Antonio. Stephen Curry,
Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant in Golden State. There have been plenty of others.
And in Miami, there was Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James.
They spent four years together with the Heat, went to four NBA Finals, won two championships and were the biggest thing in basketball. Many thought it would be easy. It wasn't. Miami started 9-8 in the trio's first season together and the road was rocky for much longer than anyone imagined.
“It's a wild ride,” Bosh said.
James, as he now gets set to be part of another Big Three — a Big Four, really, alongside the likes of fellow superstars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown on the now star-studded Philadelphia 76ers — remembers those early Miami days well. Perhaps that's why he sounded the alarm about what the next few months could be like for these 76ers.
“Everyone wants instant oatmeal,” James said. “You just put the oatmeal in the bowl, you put some water and then throw it in the microwave. In a minute and a half, you've got something to eat, you’re ready to go. If you want to do something special, it takes time. ... In order for us to be great, we have to do things that are just not comfortable.”
Translation: Get ready, 76ers.
Such is Big Three or Big Four life.
“You really have to stay solid within the team,” said Bosh, who might have sacrificed more stats than anyone during that four-year run in Miami. “At the end of the day, the main stat was the ‘W’ and putting one in the ‘W’ column. You can average a bunch of points and be out of the league. You can average a bunch of points and not be competing for a championship. They’re going to have to remember the priority.
"And when tough times come — not if, but when — handle it and talk about it, communicate, and remember why you’re there.”
There are statistical sacrifices that will have to be made if the 76ers are going to get to where they want to go this season and win the title that has eluded Philly since 1983. Even with Embiid missing more than half of the 2025-26 season, he topped the 1,000-point mark — as did James (with the Los Angeles Lakers), Brown (with Boston), Maxey and Philly's star-in-waiting in VJ Edgecombe. There hasn't been a championship team with five 1,000-point scorers on the roster since the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics.
Combined, James, Maxey, Embiid, Edgecombe and Brown took 234 shots in clutch situations — game margin within five points, five minutes or less on the clock in the fourth quarter — last season. That simply won't happen this season, since most teams don't combine for that many shots in clutch times over a whole season. There will be moments where Philly's star players are used to having the ball in their hands — but now will see teammates in those roles at times.
It's a fine line. The Warriors won a title in 2017 with Curry, Thompson, Durant and Draymond Green all needing to adjust their roles, at least on some level. But as Curry pointed out when that title series was over, that didn't mean any of them could suddenly become passive.
“We all needed to be aggressive and be the players that we are in what we bring to the table every single night,” Curry said after that series — against James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. “We can all show up every night and be ourselves and really achieve the potential that we all have together.”
James set the tone for this Philly team over the summer when he took a pay cut of roughly 92% from last season and agreed to play this season for the bargain price of $3.9 million. He doesn't need more money. The lure of becoming the first player in NBA history to win a championship with four different franchises seems to be enough motivation.
And, in fairness, it's also easy for the player who holds the NBA scoring record to say that stats don't matter. Officially, he took only one shot from the field in his preseason debut with the 76ers; he also drew enough fouls to get eight more shots from the line. (He made them all, for what it's worth.) Nobody knows what'll happen this season, but it seems highly unlikely that James will clamor for more shots. That's never been his style. It would be ideal if everyone in Philly felt the same way.
“My focus is winning,” Brown said over the summer. “Other people’s focus may be scoring. My focus going into every practice, every meeting, every shootaround, every film session is like, ‘How do we win, night in and night out?’ Sometimes that may change, sometimes it may look different, but whatever it takes.”
It's reasonable to think that Maxey, Embiid, Brown and James could all see their scoring averages drop this season for the greater good. There will be nights when the spotlight won't be on certain individuals. There will be nights when someone gets a ton of shots and someone gets very few. The most successful Big Threes all figured out how to handle such things.
Philadelphia will have to do the same.
“We’ve got the talent. Whatever,” Maxey said. “If we’re not willing to sacrifice, if we’re not willing to put in the work, it ain’t going to mean nothing.”
___
See AP’s full NBA coverage here
