Fresh off his statue unveiling outside Kaseya Center, Dwyane Wade reunited with former teammates Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller to relive moments from their championship-winning days on The OGs podcast. Miller might have joined the Heat in 2010, but Haslem and Wade became teammates in 2003.
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Wade was the fifth pick in the draft, and Haslem – who went undrafted the year prior – joined him in Miami in 2003 as a free agent. The two would go on to win three NBA championships together and form a lifelong friendship.
UD quickly became the enforcer who protected his team’s superstar, D-Wade. It’s a role he took very seriously, and not just on the hardwood either. Wade described him as the “easiest guy to believe in.”
The 2006 Finals MVP proceeded to make his case with a compelling example. “Somebody came and got my stuff from the crib, I ain’t know what to do… It was that Blue Escalade, my blue wheels, 26-inch wheels. I was rolling through Miami, man, and they got me,” Wade revealed.
Wade was confused when he stepped out of his house and his car was missing. But thankfully, he had one of the league’s best enforcers in his corner to help him out. “First person I called, before I called the police, anybody, I called UD. ‘Hey man, they got me.’ I got my jewelry in there and everything…Man, UD got that sh*t back for me,” the three-time NBA champion shared.
It was this quality that made Haslem an invaluable member of the Heat organization for two decades. He embodied the infamous Heat Culture and always made sure to have his teammates’ backs.
Funnily, in this case, Haslem’s labor of retrieving his teammate’s stolen car would be slightly futile as the Flash would sell the Escalade shortly after.
Dwyane Wade hated his blue Escalade
“I kept the chain and got rid of the truck,” Wade added during ‘The OGs’ podcast. He explained that he felt “violated” but four years ago, the 13-time All-Star admitted that the blue Escalade was the worst purchase he had made.
The Hall of Famer was on Men’s Health’s YouTube channel, discussing the various ways he has handled or mishandled his finances. “I was in college and I knew I was going to enter the draft, I had my eyes on this blue Escalade. I seen someone driving it down the streets of Milwaukee, I was like, ‘I get some money, I’m gonna get me one of those.’ So I think the color was like electric blue and I had 26-inch rims on it, I put spinners on it,” D-Wade shared when asked about the worst thing he’s ever spent money on.
Whether it was the fact that some strangers had been in it or just that he had outgrown it, Wade couldn’t stand the sight of his blue Escalade – even though his teammate and friend had put in the legwork to get it back for him.
