The Miami Heat have been through a lot this season. They're 29-31 and went through a very public and mess breakup with star Jimmy Butler. Now they're battling the weirdest possible PR nightmare imaginable.
Last week Dwyane Wade appeared on The Underground Lounge and shared a story about LeBron James's time with the Heat and an incident that he thought might have in part led to his decision to leave in the summer of "I'm coming home."
D Wade says the first moment he thought LeBron might leave MIA is when Pat Riley took his cookies
— Heat Culture (@HeatCulture13) February 26, 2025
“One thing you don’t do, is f*ck with LeBrons cookies… 4 finals in a row. You don’t need to micro manage us, I felt Riley went too far with his micro managing”
(Via… pic.twitter.com/KAoVWA9cWX
"This was the first moment where I had an inkling that LeBron may not be back," said Wade. "One thing you don't do is f--- with LeBron cookies. No, no, no, no, this is serious. Like he loves chocolate chip cookies. Like chocolate chip cookies and ice cream he loves. So when he gets on the plane, Bron walks on the plane with a bag of food. One bag is all cookies and the other bag is what his chef prepared for him."
Wade explained that James didn't eat the food on the plane and always enjoyed his cookies while the team played cards.
"We get on the plane and we play cards at the front of the plane," Wade continued. "We play cards and then at some point Bron will be like, hey, bring me those cookies. And this one day he was like hey, where my cookies at and they had to come up there and whisper in his ear and tell him there weren't no more cookies on the plane." At that point LeBron stopped playing cards and Wade knew a line had been crossed.
"It was too much micromanaging at that point," Wade explained. "Like you're talking about who was four Finals in a row. You don't need to micromanage us and I felt that Riles did. He went a little too far with his micromanaging at points like that. He's a grown man. You don't take his cookies away from him."
Now generally, this story ends here. And it is a great story. But the Miami Heat are not ones to let anyone—even Dwyane Wade—push an anti-Heat culture agenda and sit quietly like someone just took their cookies.
On Wednesday's edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Le Batard reported that multiple people from the Heat had reached out to say Wade's story was wrong.
"It was ice cream," Le Batard relayed. "It was not cookies. Pat wasn’t the coach, he didn’t travel. Doesn’t know what the food is on the flight. It was the nutritionist, not Pat. And this one, this one. Everyone knows, this is what I was told. Everyone knows that Pat would have eaten those cookies himself because he loves chocolate chip cookies. So the story just has no truth to it.”
Here's a clip. You can watch the full segment on YouTube.
Dan has MAJOR sources from within the Miami Heat organization who are refuting Dwyane Wade's story on LeBron having his cookies taken.
— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) March 5, 2025
Developing - https://t.co/qFS5bwaHTP pic.twitter.com/4miRNu5tOJ
Keep in mind that this was a literal decade ago. Not only did LeBron return to Cleveland after someone from the Heat organization took one of his beloved desserts, but he also left Cleveland for the Lakers. This was so long ago that LeBron's current teammate Luka Doncic was playing for Real Madrid's under-16 team at the time. The fact that the Heat feel the need to refute a story this old is kind of amazing.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Heat Deny Story LeBron James Left Miami Because Pat Riley Took His Airplane Cookies.
