Jerry Reinsdorf On 2010 LeBron Pursuit: 'I Really Thought We Had Him'
(CBS) Before the Bulls missed out on Carmelo Anthony on the free-agent market this past offseason, they struck out in swinging for the fences in the LeBron James sweepstakes in summer 2010.
While it seems to many that James may have been destined for the move to and a historic run in Miami all along, that's not the view Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf held in the moment. After the Bulls had their in-person meeting in 2010 with James, Reinsdorf was confident Chicago had landed the superstar, he admitted Thursday while speaking on a panel along with the other top top executives of Chicago's professional teams at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile.
"I thought we were going to get (him)," Reinsdorf said, according to Crain's Chicago Business. "We met with him in Cleveland, spent a lot of time together. He and (coach Tom) Thibodeau spent a half-hour together just talking about how he was going to be used. And the whole time (LeBron) said to us, 'Who should I bring with me, Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh?' And when he asked that question, I really thought that we had him. But we didn't, and we probably never had him."
The Bulls did their due diligence on Wade and Bosh too, but as you well know, they would join James in Miami and help win two championships in four trips to the NBA Finals.
As it sits, James has become just another miss on the list of premier free agents that the Bulls have tried to lure to Chicago.
