Dwyane Wade was recently announced as a finalist for the Hall of Fame for the Class of 2023. The Miami Heat legend was one of the finest shooting guards to have graced the league and is rightfully a lock to be a First Ballot Hall of Famer.
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The Sheriff of Wade County played a crucial part in getting Miami Heat their three NBA championships. The first of the three came in 2006 and marked Wade’s announcement to the league. His second and third, though, probably enraged the rest of the league.
Wade and Heat’s second and third NBA championships came after the union of the ‘Heatles’. Three of the best players in the league, and members of the vaunted Class of 2003, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade, had teamed up to build a superteam of epic proportions.
Four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals followed, and so did two championships. But the 2012 and 2013 rings weren’t as special to Wade as they were to LeBron and Bosh. Flash had won his first ring well before he got his superstar crew. The others had teamed up with Wade to win, a fact rightly acknowledged by King James himself.
Also Read: Dwyane Wade Gets Emotional After Named the 2023 HOF Finalist Along with Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol
LeBron James said he wouldn’t have won at the highest level without Dwyane Wade.
King James is one of the, if not the greatest player basketball has seen. And for Wade, there arguably is no bigger compliment than to have such an icon of basketball attribute his overall success in great part to him.
After an encounter in 2018, ahead of Wade’s retirement, James was asked about his Banana Boat pal. The NBA’s all-time top scorer had quite the response in honor of his long-term friend.
“Personally, I would have been very successful in this league without DWade. But to accomplish what I really wanted to accomplish in this league, that’s winning at the highest level, I needed him. And that’s why I made the jump. I appreciate more than I can express in words what he did for me went down to Miami” said James about Wade.
Flash was certainly not just another teammate for LeBron. James also opened up about how the 13-time All-Star helped him adjust to life in Miami in an ode to his then-retiring friend.
“I spent 25 years of my life in Akron, Ohio. I spent 18 years, going through High School and my first 7 years of my professional career living in Akron, Ohio. So, that’s all I knew. For me to move down to a place that was foreign to me and my family and him to open up that franchise and the city for me and my family and making it so seamless….it just shows the type of guy he is” described James.
While “The Decision” was as controversial as things got in the NBA, the result was definitely an enjoyable basketball experience for any neutral NBA fan.
The duo was set to join forces in 2010 regardless of whether it would be in Miami.
Miami may have made the union possible, but it could have gone another path too. The stars had aligned their free agency decision together, and any team with cap space technically had a play for them.
However, it eventually came down to just three franchises. The Chicago Bulls, The New York Knicks, and the Miami Heat. Neither of them wanted anything to do with the NBA’s Western Conference, it would appear.
The Bulls would have probably made for a better narrative than the Heat. Wade’s homecoming and LeBron donning Michael Jordan‘s colors would have been fascinating. But it shall forever remain a ‘What if?’ on Trivia nights.
