Dwyane Wade has seen plenty of tough challenges during his long career with the Miami Heat, from adapting to play alongside a veteran Shaquille O'Neal to taking part in the first era of a super team next to friends LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Yet there is one event that proved the toughest for him.
“Taking a step back to ‘Bron, that was the toughest part for me at the time,” Wade told Michael Lee of The Athletic. “Obviously, before my injuries, I was a bad boy. It was my city, my team. (If) we win the Finals that year (in 2011), I’m arguably Finals MVP. I didn’t need to… but we got two out of the next three championships and I’d still do it all over again.”
The Heat played most of that 2010-11 embracing the label of NBA villains, a title mainly harnessed by James after his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2010.
Yet the formula wasn't working, as the Dallas Mavericks stripped the Heat from primetime glory by taking the championship from their very hands in a 4-2 series win. The partnership between James and Wade wasn't working the right way.
“I just felt, sitting back, watching the way he played and playing against him for so long, he wasn’t as comfortable as he needed to be,” Wade continued. “And it was too much of him looking over his shoulder or looking at me. He wasn’t just playing. It wasn’t clear mind. He was always thinking about me or looking for me and I just wanted him to be play and allow him to be great.”
Wade already had the city at his fingertips, as the icon of the franchise, but he soon realized he had to cede the control to the team's best player if this partnership was to reap any fruits. At 29 years old, likely in the peak of his career — Wade took a back seat to James — a move that resulted in two championships to come.
“Showed what type of guy he is. World class guy. Guy who is comfortable with himself. Ain’t worried about nothing. He doesn’t care about the narrative at all,” James said of Wade. “At that moment for him to do that, I thought it was crazy at first. ‘What you mean?’ I understood what he wanted to do and he felt like it was best for the franchise, for me and my growth, and for our ball club.”
That unselfishness turned Wade and James' friendship into a full-fledged brotherhood, one they still maintain to this day, nearly five years since disbanding.
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