Gilbert Arenas says Heat tried to trade LeBron James to Magic for Dwight Howard: ‘LeBron and Pat Riley were fighting over power’

Former NBA guard Gilbert Arenas recently revealed that the Miami Heat tried to trade LeBron James to the Orlando Magic for Dwight Howard after the 2011 NBA Finals. 

The Heat lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals and LeBron didn’t play well.

The King was also having issues with Miami president Pat Riley. 

Gil says the Miami Heat once tried to trade LeBron James for Dwight Howard after losing the 2011 NBA Finals

“They felt the way that LeBron played against Dallas, they didn’t need him.”

What a trade that would’ve been!! pic.twitter.com/w2FL5eqFsS

— Playback (@WatchPlayback) March 14, 2025

It’s a good thing the Heat didn’t trade LeBron, who spent four years in South Beach. The NBA icon won two MVPs, two championships and two Finals MVPs with Miami. 

Many people don’t know that LeBron cried in Randy Mims’ driveway a month after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Heat in 2010. The superstar was away from his family and getting booed in every road arena.

LeBron’s jersey was also getting burned across Northeast Ohio. 

“I’m coming over,” LeBron told Mims, via Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “I need to talk to you. I’m not sure I’m doing this right. I’m not sure I made the right decision to come here. … It was just a lot of s— that was just going on in my head. I was still young. … I was questioning myself. I know I probably startled the f— out of him at like three o’clock, four o’clock in the morning. I pulled up and I told him to come outside and I literally sat on the hood of my car. He came out and we just talked things through.”

LeBron, the leading scorer in NBA history, averaged 26.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, 6.7 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.7 blocks with the Heat. He went back to the Cavaliers in the summer of 2014. 

Howard and LeBron were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers twice. The two future Hall of Famers won the 2020 title together against the Heat at the Walt Disney World bubble.