LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were a lethal duo during their playing days. Dominating the league during their time with the Miami Heat, the pairing led the Florida side to four-straight Finals appearances and emerged victorious on two of those occasions. Outside the court, D-Wade and James are the best of friends. While Wade and LBJ are extremely close to each other, their friendship with Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul is well-known as well. Over the years, the “Banana Boat” squad has often been seen spending quality time together. Despite their tight relationship, neither of them have ever shied away from expressing their true thoughts on each other. “The Flash” just gave us a perfect example of the same when he made an argument on the Club Shay Shay podcast that Carmelo Anthony should’ve won the Rookie of the Year award the year that LeBron did.
Advertisement
The trio of Wade, Anthony, and Paul recently got together. With LeBron James in the middle of his European tour, CJ McCollum was invited for the reunion. Photos of the four NBA stars enjoying their vacation were shared by Wade with the caption, “Wine dudes”. As if replacing the King in their trip together was not enough, Wade recently made a case for Melo winning the 2004 ROTY honors during his appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast.
Dwyane Wade believes Carmelo Anthony should’ve won Co-Rookie of the Year with LeBron James
Back in May 2023, in a Sports Illustrated interview, Melo claimed that he should’ve received the Rookie of the Year award in 2004. If not the sole winner, the league should’ve at least named him Co-Rookie of the Year alongside James.
Backing Anthony’s claims, Wade also stated that the then-Nuggets rookie deserved to win the trophy. Speaking to Sharpe about Melo’s take, the Miami Heat legend revealed his opinions on the topic on Club Shay Shay:
“It’s an argument. He had an argument then, and he has an argument now. Take nothing away from LeBron, but let’s look at what Melo did over there in the Western Conference, okay…Co-Rookie of the Year.”
“Y’all showed us that y’all can do it, right? Co-Rookie of the Year, if we go by the numbers and how everything is,” Wade added.
While the two averaged almost the same number of points and rebounds, LeBron dished out more assists than Anthony. Taking that into consideration, Wade further pointed out that LeBron’s journey was harder because he had to basically carry the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Melo was on a ready-made playoff team.
The NBA has named players Co-Rookie of the Year before
LeBron averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.6 steals per game in the 2003-2004 seasons. Whereas, Anthony lodged a similar stat line of 21.0 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game.
Receiving 78 of the total 1st place votes, Bron finished #1 in the race with 508 points won. On the other hand, Melo received 38 lesser 1st place votes, to finish 2nd with 430 total points.
In all honesty, both the youngsters deserved to be named Co-Rookie of the Year. It’s not like the league had no precedence of giving two players the same honor. Only nine years before this situation, Grant Hill and Jason Kidd were the joint winners of the award. However, the supreme hype around LeBron James made it difficult for Melo to gain any momentum with the voters.
