Dwyane Wade played 16 seasons in the NBA. In that time, he made 13 All-Star teams, eight All-NBA teams, and received MVP votes in eight separate seasons. He won three titles and the 2006 Finals MVP. By any measure, he had a legendary career, which is why he’s in the Hall of Fame and why there’s a statue of him outside the Miami Heat’s Kaseya Center.
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It’s the perfect encapsulation of what made him such a high-level competitor that Wade believes, for all he accomplished, he still didn’t max out his potential.
The Heat legend appeared on the Pardon My Take podcast this weekend, and he shared that nutrition wasn’t exactly a key to his success.
“I was terrible in my prime,” he said. “That’s why my prime didn’t last that long, because I didn’t have the nutrients for my body to continue to perform the way it needed to perform. I was a sugar baby. Give me sugar, give me sweets, give me burgers, give me fried chicken. I grew up that way.”
Nutritional science has made great advancements in the past couple of decades, with many athletes today carefully fine-tuning their diets to maximize their performance. By the time Wade realized the difference eating healthy could make, he said, “It was too late, Father Time was already at the door.”
One example Wade shared is that for much of his life, he wouldn’t touch fish. “Me and fish had a ‘You stay over there, I stay over here’ relationship for a long time,” he explained. Today, that’s changed.
It’s a shame that he didn’t learn any lessons from his good friend LeBron James. LeBron is famously fastidious about his body, and though he’s been known to enjoy the occasional cigar or glass of wine, the lengths he has gone to extend his career have been unparalleled.
Wade and LeBron were teammates for four years in Miami, then for half a season in Cleveland. He was a major part of the two championships the Heat won while LeBron was in town, though his production began declining in LeBron’s final year in Miami. Meanwhile, LeBron only seemed to get stronger, and he’s somehow still doing it after 22 seasons.
As we’ve all been witnesses to for the past 2+ decades, LeBron is a one of one. Wade knows that better than anybody, which is why it’s ultimately pointless to hold him up as a comparison point.
Wade is being a bit hard on himself, but that’s what makes the great ones great. You can always do one more rep, always get one more shot up, always study one more hour of tape. At the end of the day, he’s still one of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history, and his legacy as a champion is more than secure.
