Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade says the Dion Waiters situation with the Heat is “unfortunate.”
Waiters was suspended by the Heat “for his failure to adhere to team policies, violation of team rules and continued insubordination.”
“It’s unfortunate what’s going on with him,” Wade said on the All The Smoke podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. “The kid loves to hoop. What we’re seeing right now is now that the game was taken away from him, he doesn’t know how to deal with it. He came out and said that last year being hurt, trying to come back and live up to whatever these expectations were. He was disappointed in himself how he played last year. When he doesn’t have hoop, he doesn’t know how to navigate through this world.
“Once again, that tells you, you taking kids out of inner city and throw them in this big world and expect them to be perfect. But you’re not. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of instances that Dion is going through to get you to understand and to learn.
“Hopefully he can catch it before it’s too late and he’s not looking on the outside looking in and saying ‘Man, I want to get back in and get another opportunity.' Hopefully people around him can continue to keep guiding him and let him know don’t let this opportunity you have slide away.”
Waiters is under contract with the Heat for $12.1 million this season and $12.7 million next season, on the final two years of the four-year, $52 million contract he signed with the Heat back in 2017.
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