The 2013 NBA season ended with LeBron James and the Miami Heat making their third straight Finals appearance and repeating as champions. They defeated the San Antonio Spurs in six games and James walked away with a Finals MVP.
That year looked locked in for Miami, with LeBron and the team setting records that year. But looking back, former Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay still sees another ending to the story. He believes that Memphis could have reached the Finals and taken down Miami if he had not been traded that year.
Gay was dealt in a three-team trade in 2013 that sent him to the Toronto Raptors. The Grizzlies held their ground without him, but their playoff run ended in a four-game sweep to the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.
On a podcast with former Grizzlies teammates Tony Allen and Zach Randolph, he laid out his view of how things could have been different.
“With all due respect to that team, they won a championship… but I don’t think they could’ve beat us that year… That was our year.”
Rudy Gay says the Grizzlies would’ve beaten the Heat in 2013 if he wasn’t traded
“With all due respect to that team, they won a championship… but I don’t think they could’ve beat us that year… That was our year.”
(🎥 @OutTheMudTL / @NBAMyke )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) September 5, 2025
