Tom Thibodeau said he came away from the Bulls pursuit of LeBron James when he was a free agent during the 2010 offseason impressed with the Heat star.

"He was great," Thibodeau said. "He's a fierce competitor. I thought [chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf] said it best: 'He earned the right to do what he did.' He handled himself overall well. He's not perfect. No one is. But he was great with us, and that's all I base it on."

Thibodeau didn't sound surprised by the backlash against James when he chose the Heat over his home-town Cavaliers.

"You're never going to please everybody," he said. "At the end of the day you just have to be true to yourself and he was. That was the best decision for him. It didn't work out for us. We moved on. He moved on. It's all good."