Dwyane Wade was the sole offensive focus of the Miami Heat before the arrival of LeBron James in 2010. However, when LBJ shared the hardwood with him, Wade sacrificed his role and allowed him to take over the Miami show. Wade’s decision was vital in the Heat landing back-to-back titles. Acknowledging his unselfish step, Rich Paul gave props to Flash for giving the keys to his long-term agent.
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On Gil’s Arena, while discussing James’ best teammate in his two-decade-plus career, Paul lauded Wade’s team-oriented approach that helped him unlock two more championships for the team.
As per Paul, if Wade had exhibited egoistic characteristics when James came to Miami, the team wouldn’t have been able to win a single championship. While alluding to the close bond between LBJ and Wade, Paul told Gilbert Arenas,
“D Wade was extremely selfless because they had a friendship, there was automatically a respect for one another… It was Wade County going in, but LeBron trumps any of that because he’s such a big thing.. DWade was selfless enough, he had enough awareness to understand this needs to be about us.”
Rich Paul gave further wings to the narrative about D-Wade’s accommodative nature playing a big part in building a winning partnership with LeBron James. Wade knew that if he let the King do his thing, nobody would be able to stop them from succeeding. After all, LBJ’s intensity during practices made a huge impression on the 3x champ.
LeBron James is a force of nature
In 2023, Dwyane Wade appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay pod and recalled how LeBron James used to do unparalleled maneuvers during practices. As per him, LBJ’s practice sessions are one of the reasons why he is one of the NBA GOATs and his performances during practices might have even surpassed his in-game heroics. For Flash, whenever James retires, only the NBA fraternity would be able to grasp what they just witnessed.
“He was better in practice than I thought he was in the game… When I saw him in practice, it was a separator for me of good to greats to GOATs. You cannot do the things he did and how he did… As LeBron’s career ends, we’re gonna actually look what he actually did and we’re gonna be like ‘Oh’”.
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Ever since retiring, Wade has left no stone unturned to laud his former teammate. Having watched LBJ first-hand, he knew that he was a part of something special. Thus, it was James’ unseen talent because of which Wade conceded to James and let him push the Heat to ascension.
