“I was ready to fight Kendrick Perkins .. he should’ve wrapped his legs around me”: Dwyane Wade, the 6’4” TNT analyst posterized 6’10” ESPN analyst back in the day

Akash Murty | 21/07/2022
"I was ready to fight Kendrick Perkins .. he should’ve wrapped his legs around me”: Dwyane Wade, the 6’4” TNT analyst posterized 6’10” ESPN analyst back in the day

Dwyane Wade found himself in the best position to create a dynasty in 2010 but he didn’t slow down to prolong his career until his body started giving in.

When Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh the three draftees of the 2003 class came together to join forces in Miami in 2010. Many other teams were pre-loaded to get their own shot at the NBA title.

In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were a 50+ win team in the 2009-10 season. These two teams will be two of the best teams in their conferences for the next 4-5 years, having one meet-up in the postseason – the 2012 Finals, where Heat would win their first championship.

Even their regular season battles had playoffs-like intensity with Westbrook and Wade’s electrifying speed from the backcourt and KD and LeBron’s dominance from the front. That team was built solely to win championships, anything less was a failure.

OKC also had a solid team where James Harden was coming off the bench. They added another decent 6’10 role player to that bench in Kendrick Perkins who had played a considerable role in the Celtics reaching the 2010 Finals and winning the title in ’08.

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A 6’4 Dwyane Wade posterized 6’10 blocking specialist Kendrick Perkins

We are talking about a dunk that came in a regular-season game in the 2010-11 season. D-Wade was averaging 25.5 points per game that season with a 50% conversion rate which made it pretty difficult for him to miss probably the best dunk of his long list of posters.

Perkins did not have an illustrious career like Wade. The big man played 14 seasons in the league and averaged 5.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, an assist and 1.2 blocks per game throughout his career. His major skill for which he was an in-demand role player was his shot-blocking.

So that made 6ft 3” Heat guard’s dunk over the 6ft 10” big man a lot more terrific than it already was. But he was a little confused if he was ready to fight the big man afterwards or not.

Also read: “Best team of the Joel Embiid era! Right there with the Jimmy Butler team”: ESPN’s Zach Lowe says Sixers are already as good as the team that almost beat the Raptors in 2019

While that Thunder team as good as it was would never win a championship, the Heat with the help of Wade would win 2 championships in 4 Finals they would reach with the big 3.

The 13-time All-Star will finish his career in 2019 with 3 rings and a career average of 22 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game and will seal his name for NBA’s Top-75 players of all time.

 

 

Post Edited By: Akash Murty
Dwayne Wade Kendrick Perkins Miami Heat OKC Thunder

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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