The snark here and elsewhere during recent seasons had been of LeBron James doubling as general manager, be it the additions he insisted upon during his Miami Heat tenure (Mike Miller, Ray Allen) or those he helped orchestrate with the Cleveland Cavaliers (Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love, acquiring J.R. Smith, the above-market deal for Tristan Thompson).

And yet, in listening to Heat President Pat Riley a week ago during his summer of discontent, the notion of NBA stars as the league’s ultimate power brokers is probably as true during this era of free agency as it ever has been.

To get a star, you not only need a star, but a star actively engaged in the personnel process, such as when the Golden State Warriors rolled their starting lineup into the Hamptons this summer to embrace Kevin Durant, or when the Heat fueled their Big Three push behind Dwyane Wade in 2010.

It is why, in the wake of their compelling appearance at the ESPYs, it would be wise not to sleep on the possibility of James, Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul eventually joining forces. With today’s players, where there is such a will, there almost assuredly can be a way.

Riley, in fact, opened a reflective window into players and power-brokering as he offered his epilogue on the Heat’s Wade era, by going back to how it all began with Wade, James and Chris Bosh.

“I can tell you a funny story about . . . maybe I shouldn’t,” he said in his typical disarming manner of arming his argument. “But I can tell you a funny story about 2010. When we took the three of them in, we had $49.5 million [in cap space]. So we had $16.5 million for each guy, which was the max deal. So, we got it all.

“Then they said, ‘Well, who do we have left?’ We got Mario [Chalmers] as the starting point guard and we got Joel [Anthony] as the starting center. That’s it; we have five guys.

“They said, ‘Well, we would like to get Mike Miller. How can we get Mike Miller?’ I said, ‘I can’t get you Mike Miller. We can’t get him. I don’t have the money.’ So we traded Michael Beasley to get the money, but they had to go down to $15 million. That was their choice. Then they wanted U.D. [Udonis Haslem]. Well, I can’t get U.D. even though I wanted to get U.D.”

That’s when Wade stepped up to sacrifice a bit more of his salary than James and Bosh in order to re-sign Haslem, who now stands as the last remaining member of that 2010-11 Heat roster.

But Riley said the players-as-brokers wanted even more, the extra year for James and Bosh that only could be assured by changing their signings to a sign-and-trade agreement.

“So that whole concept about bringing guys in the [cap-space] room was on five-year deals,” Riley continued of when contracts were allowed to be a year longer than currently. “The interesting part is on July 9th, they all agreed to come in on five-year deals, room only, so I didn’t have to give up any assets. Then, at the 11th hour, they all wanted the sixth year. You know what that cost me and Andy [Elisburg, the Heat’s general manager]? That cost us four picks. I just said to them, ‘If you want the sixth year because I know you’re going to opt out after the fourth anyhow, but if you want the sixth year, I don’t want any of you to walk into my office and say, ‘Hey, can we get any young guys around here? Can we get some draft picks around here?’ Because they were gone.”

It turns out James did want more young guys and picks, the young guy who turned out to be championship co-conspirator Kyrie Irving this past season in Cleveland, the pick in Wiggins that the Cavs flipped for Love.

When he was done with his reflection, Riley smiled, “and I don’t know why I told you that story.”

But he did. Of course he did. Because for all the power he has amassed with the Heat, all the respect he has cultivated around the league, this is an era brokered by the players, and when they don’t get or can’t get what they want, a LeBron James leaves for Cleveland, a Dwyane Wade departs for Chicago.

IN THE LANE

CLEAR PATH: Not only will Dwyane Wade become the highest-paid player on his team for the first time this season, with the Chicago Bulls, but he also could be spared going against the opposing defense’s top defender for the first time since LeBron James left the Heat in the 2014 offseason. That, of course, will depend on how opposing defenses decide to also match up against Jimmy Butler. “A lot of how we attack will be based on matchups and who the defender is and whose hands we’re going to put the ball in to make plays,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg told the Chicago Tribune. Hoiberg downplayed concerns about redundancy. “Great players always figure it out,” Hoiberg said, with Rajon Rondo rounding out the Bulls’ perimeter rotation. “It has to be about one thing, and that’s winning. Based on who has the hot hand on any given night, you play through that guy, and the rest of the team plays off him.”

OR NOT: When it comes to revisionist history, forward Carmelo Anthony apparently thought his New York Knicks had money they didn’t for a bid for Wade before he signed with the Bulls. “There was definitely a chance,” Anthony told reporters at U.S. Olympic team practice. “We would have had to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the 25th hour. But there was a chance. I think if it was maybe two days earlier, we probably would have had D-Wade.” The Knicks instead wound up with Courtney Lee and Brandon Jennings in the $16.2 million of space that was not enough to accommodate Wade, who had $20 million-plus offers from the Heat, Bulls and Denver Nuggets as a contract starting point in 2016-17.

COUNTERARGUMENT: Among the more intriguing elements of Pat Riley’s media update a week ago was offering up the notion that when it comes to young talent, the Heat foursome of Justise Winslow (20), Josh Richardson (22), Tyler Johnson (24) and Hassan Whiteside (27) match up favorably to any such quartet in the NBA, “Give me four guys their age in the league, and let’s play a four-on-four game and I think we’d have a pretty competitive four.” Enter Twitter protagonist and friend of the column Ben Schecter of Weston (and Vanderbilt), who offered up the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ Karl-Anthony Towns (20), Andrew Wiggins (21), Kris Dunn (22) and Zach LaVine (22). That makes it apparent why Tom Thibodeau bypassed the possibility of the New York Knicks for the potential of the ‘Wolves (and that’s not even including Ricky Rubio, who is two years younger than Whiteside).

ON THE MARK(S): While introducing the Brooklyn Nets‘ acquisitions, former Heat center Sean Marks, who is in the midst of his first year as Nets general manager, said this past week he had no regrets about the significant offers sheets Brooklyn extended to Heat guard Tyler Johnson and Portland Trail Blazers guard Allen Crabbe, despite each being matched and neither player being acquired. “We didn’t get the two guys we put offer sheets on, but that’s O.K.,” said Marks, whose bid for Johnson was $50 million over four years. “We obviously knew we were doing the right thing because their teams matched. So that was something there.”

HEAD START: Unlike most head coaches who prefer to witness summer league from a distance, including the Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, new Memphis Grizzlies coach David Fizdale, Spoelstra’s former lead assistant, took it upon himself to work the July sidelines. Fizdale, in fact, castigated himself for a Grizzlies’ loss to the Los Angeles Lakers’ summer team. “I was too dang cool,” Fizdale told Memphis’ Commercial Appeal. “I didn’t bring an urgency to that game and the guys followed right in line with me. I’ll never let a minute go by without coaching with urgency and with a lot of energy and a lot of encouragement.” Grizzlies assistant Keith Smart, who followed Fizdale from the Heat, said establishing an ethos has been paramount, “even in summer league, because he wants to lay a cultural foundation.”

NUMBER

12th. Where Dwyane Wade’s jersey stood in NBA sales over the calendar year that ended in June, with his first new jersey likely to provide a boost this coming season with the Chicago Bulls. Wade, Kevin Durant (8th), who left the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors, and  Derrick Rose (10th), who was traded from the Bulls to the New York Knicks, are the only players from the Top 15 who switched teams this offseason, with Kobe Bryant (No. 3) and Tim Duncan (No. 11) retiring.

[email protected]. Follow him at twitter.com/iraheatbeat or facebook.com/ira.winderman