Arroyo back in big way

Guard was a casualty of Heat’s Big Three, now part of Big3

MIAMI — There was a time before this current run in the Big3 when there was the Big Three for Carlos Arroyo.

That was back in 2010, when the point guard out of Florida International University was an opening-night starter for the Miami Heat when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh took the court for the first time as Big Three teammates in a regular-season game.

“An honor,” Arroyo said this week, nearly a decade later, amid a basketball career that now has him competing in Ice Cube’s Big3 halfcourt league, which makes a Saturday stop at AmericanAirlines Arena. “I had always wanted to be a member of the Heat. And when that opportunity came, to play with those three, it was thrilling.” And short lived. By midseason 2010-11, Arroyo was replaced by current Big3 opponent Mario Chalmers as the Heat’s starting point guard. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he was gone, released in favor of Mike Bibby, who famously flamed out in the 2011 playoffs that left the Heat humbled in the NBA Finals by the Dallas Mavericks.

But that was then, and this is now.

Arroyo, at 40, has finally found the balance between basketball and family, savoring the travel volleyball experience with his daughters as much as these weekly nationally televised three-on-three appearances alongside and against several former NBA teammates.

“I think my passion and love for the game remains in place when it comes to basketball,” the 6-foot-2 veteran of nine NBA seasons said. “It’s all I’ve known since I was 5 years old. After I left the league, after I left Miami, I went and played in Europe. And then I bought a team in Puerto Rico and brought it to my hometown and did that for the last couple of years. I played seasons that lasted only four months. It allowed me to be home with my kids.

“My kids are growing. My two girls are playing volleyball, travel volleyball. It’s like all-year round, so I’m still keeping busy.”

But not too busy to keep from taking the court alongside Big3 Trilogy teammates such as former Heat foil Jason Terry, former Heat guard Qyntel Woods and James “Flight” White, the former University of Florida player.

“It makes me feel young again. When I got drafted. I was starting all over again,” he said of being taken 27th in this year’s Big3 draft. “I had been talking to Chauncey Billups, and he always talked to me about playing in it. It’s been great. It’s different. The format is different. You’ve got to be ready to go and bring your spark in the minutes you get in there. It’s more physical than I thought. But it’s great.

“I’m having a great time, seeing the family again, the camaraderie of the guys and being in the buildings again. It’s just fun.”

But very different from the previous times he had played in his home arena with the home team.

If not for that Heat move for Bibby, another current Big3 competitor, Arroyo might have been part of those James-WadeBosh Finals teams, perhaps with an NBA championship ring to go with his titles in Israel, Turkey and Spain.

“It’s part of basketball, part of the business of this game and you have to understand it and move on,” he said, before heading off to a workout in advance of Saturday’s game. “I was disappointed because I saw myself always playing here. But I got over it. I had an opportunity with the Boston Celtics. I thought I had a chance to play in the Finals. That didn’t work out, so I moved on.”

But never away, still a Miami resident.

“That was my path, I guess,” he said.

And if there could be a Heat encore, albeit in a different role, that would be as embraced as Saturday’s return to AmericanAirlines Arena.

“I’m interested in coaching,” he said. “I would love to be here in Miami with the Heat, with my family. So I’ll try to talk to a couple of people, to get into coaching or scouting.”