On the podcast called “The OGs” with Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, they had on former NBA player Darius Miles who recalled a story of playing AAU basketball with Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade. He would go on to say that Wade would play exceptionally well in these amateur games but was not invited to the famous Nike basketball camps after.

Miles would reveal that Wade's “feelings were so hurt for not getting picked” since he was performing very well. Furthermore, he expressed that from that moment, it propelled him to be the player that fans and his peers know and love.

“D Wade, we would go to these games, AAU, and I’d have 30 or 25 and D Wade would have like 30 or he’d have like 25, and then they decided not to let him go to Nike Camp. He didn’t get picked to go to Nike Camp,” Miles said. “His feelings were so hurt for not getting picked to go to Nike Camp because he was putting up numbers, you know he was doing his thing. I feel like from that moment, because he worked so hard to get to that, that at that moment he just excelled ever since then.”

It does not need to be said how much of a great basketball player Wade was and the accomplishments he has had with the Heat including three championships and five NBA Finals appearances. People might get annoyed at the term “Heat Culture,” but there are few people that embody that sentiment more than Wade along with Haslem.

Wade getting praised from his peers, like Carmelo Anthony

Former Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade and former player Carmelo Anthony in front of the Kaseya Center.

Even before playing professionally in the NBA, he was a standout coming out of Marquette University being selected by the Heat with the fifth overall pick in 2003. Players like Haslem and Miles are far from the only players to compliment the retired star as just recently, former New York Knicks great and friend of Wade Carmelo Anthony said on his show that he was a “bad motherf*****.”

“I don’t think people understand how bad of a motherf***** D-Wade was… I’m saying it with this much passion because you don’t hear that name come up much in basketball amongst this younger generation. So it’s like nah, ya’ll are buggin’. This was within the last 10 years. How the f*** y’all just erasing that… He was a bad motherf***** man,” Anthony said. “He was probably the best at shot creation ability. The way he created shots in the paint, floaters, one-handed, taking contact behind the back. There weren’t guards that were athletic like that at his size… Arguably he was the best 2-guard in the league at one point in time and people felt that…He deserves his flowers man so big shoutout to Miami, for the first statue. Let’s hope that shit don’t melt!”

Heat continue to celebrate Wade and his accomplishments

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President of the Heat in Pat Riley would surprise Wade with the announcement that an eight-foot statue will be built in his honor in front of the Kaseya Center. Wade's long-time head coach in Erik Spoelstra said after the announcement to ClutchPoints that he “wasn't expecting it.”

“Pat [Riley] kept that in his pocket. Pat is the godfather for many reasons. I was standing right next to Caron [Butler]. He had the same reaction as me. Just goosebumps and I was like ‘whoa, I definitely wasn't expecting that.' You know, he comes out with the bobblehead, didn't know where he was going with that. He dropped the mic on that one,” Spoelstra said. “He shocked all of us, he shocked Dwayne [Wade]. I love seeing Dwayne have that really sincere, genuine reaction to it, where he was speechless. It was just really cool. That's why Dwayne is Dwyane, that's why Pat is Pat. That's the way it should be. That this is just one night and then yet the statue will be there next year. That's going to be really cool.”