Utah Jazz fans sure are glad to have Dwyane Wade as a new member of the team's ownership group.
The Jazz crowd at Vivint Arena gave Wade–who was in attendance for Utah's game against the Indiana Pacers on Friday afternoon, gave a nice ovation following the announcement he had purchased a small stake in the team.
warm welcome @vivintarena ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fZC8VNeykj
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 16, 2021
Things were not exactly going swimmingly for the Jazz in Wade's first day with the organization. Utah trailed big in the first half. The Jazz are currently down 13 to the Pacers at the time of this writing. But Jazz fans are more than ready to welcome Wade into the fold.
The Miami Heat legend told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski the decision to buy a stake in the Jazz was motivated in part by his relationship with Jazz' majority owner and governor Ryan Smith.
For his part, Smith explained his eagerness with respect to the new partnership:
“Dwyane has had a chance to be part of so many different [ownership] groups if he wanted that,” Smith said, via Wojnarowski. “We've basically been in discussion from the time we closed on the team on how we can get this done. Like I run my tech business, you want the brightest people around.
“There is a broad picture here. It's much more than just basketball. This league is the biggest platform that there is, and we ran toward that. This isn't a league where we came in saying, ‘Hey, this has gone somewhere we're not comfortable with.' This is actually what we signed up for. We're the newest ownership group. We're the youngest. Dwyane's a perfect fit.”
The Jazz currently have the best record in the NBA at 41-14 and Wade is expected to have an expansive role in organizational procedures, both on and off the floor.
The Jazz crowd made sure to make “Flash” feel welcomed on Friday afternoon.
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