NBA great and basketball analyst Dwyane Wade recently penned a piece for The Athletic highlighting the three best leaders he's played with in his career. The piece stays true to his Heat roots, as he highlighted Pat Riley, Shaquille O'Neal, and Udonis Haslem.
But missing from the list was LeBron James, who is often regarded as one of the great leaders in the NBA and was Wade's co-star when the duo won two championships in 2012 and 2013. Regarding Pat Riley, Wade spoke about Pat's attention to detail and ability to remain calm in the fire.
“Where Pat was great was his attention to detail. That’s something I try to pride myself on, even now…A lot of times, as a player, your mind, your emotions, your anxiety are all over the place. You make a couple of mistakes, and you start overthinking. He was that calm factor. Every time I went over to him during a game, he laid his hands on me and just gave me a calm feeling and reset me.”
Speaking about Shaq, he spoke about his ability to defer and the mentor role that O'Neal played in his early career en route to his first championship.
“He showed me the ropes. He showed me how to be a superstar on the court and off the court. He even gave me the nickname “Flash.” He sat down and talked to me about authenticity and making sure that my DNA was in everything that I did. It changed the way I went into meetings, it changed the way I thought about my brand and myself.”
And for Udonis Haslem, who is often praised by Wade when talking about his Heat tenure, he spoke about his capacity as a leader and the respect his voice carried.
“UD was never one of the top guys when it came to stardom, but he still had the loudest voice in the locker room. When he talked, everyone listened because we knew it wasn’t coming from a selfish place at all. It was coming from a guy who would literally give everything in his body for you on whatever play. He would take fines for you. He was making the least amount of money as an undrafted guy, but he didn’t care. He made sure that the rules Pat Riley set down were followed by everyone in the locker room. Even when LeBron James and Chris Bosh came, nothing changed.”
The piece was less about synergy on the court and more about his unique experience with these locker room leaders. But Wade has spoken highly of James in other venues, and James has been candid about how his partnership with Wade was pivotal to his career.
In December 2018 comments obtained after Wade and James's final game against each other, LeBron spoke about Wade and their successful pairing.
“I think me personally, I would have been very successful in this league without D-Wade,” LeBron said. “But to accomplish what I really wanted to accomplish in this league, and that’s winning at the highest level, I needed him. And that’s when I made the jump, and I appreciate more than I can express in words what he did for me when I went down to Miami. You have to think about how I spent the first 25 years of my life in Akron, Ohio. I spent 18 years going through high school, and then my first seven years of my professional career I was still living in Akron, Ohio, so that’s all I knew.”
