Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade led their respective teams, the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat, to plenty of success during their playing careers. In fact, Nowitzki and Wade are remembered among the best players in Mavericks and Heat history. Nowitzki and Wade recently addressed their beef from the 2006 NBA Finals on Wade's new podcast, The Why with Dwyane Wade, via iheart.com.
An honest conversation between Dwyane Wade, Dirk Nowitzki
“Well, there wasn’t a lot of love there,” Nowitzki said of his previous beef with Wade. “I think there were just things said on both sides that weren't appreciated. I think you took offense when I said we kinda gave them [Miami] the championship. Which I probably would have taken offense too because [you] worked extremely hard. You played your butt off and carried them.”
Wade then made an admission about the situation.
“I came back swinging in the media,” Wade said.
“I remember in the next year, I’ve already moved on obviously and some reporter comes up to me and says ‘Hey did you see what Dwyane said?’ And I was like ‘What?’ this was months later,” Nowitzki continued. “He [the reporter] was like ‘Yeah, you weren't a finisher, you weren’t a leader.’ And I was like ‘Wow, that came out of nowhere.’
“So I didn’t appreciate that of course but now almost 20 years later, I see where both sides were just not happy with how the whole thing went down. But I say this all the time. There can’t always be friendships at the highest level of competition.”
Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki both recently entered the Hall of Fame. It seems that the two NBA legends have moved on from their beef.
Nevertheless, Wade and Nowitzki also discussed deciding not to shake hands at the 2007 NBA All-Star Game.
“I remember in ‘07, the All Star game was in Vegas and I think we were the first two All Stars ever on record to not shake hands pre-game,” Nowitzki said. “So there was definitely some cold times.”
“And mind you, we’ve never had a conversation up to this point,” Wade responded. “We’ve never talked. It shows you the power of the media.”
Regardless of whether or not Wade and Nowitzki are friends now, one thing cannot be denied. Both former superstars are now Hall-of-Famers.
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