Dwyane Wade addressed recent comparisons between him, his draftmate LeBron James and the late Kobe Bryant, comparisons that have happened during the late stretch of the Los Angeles Lakers star's career and well into his retirement.

Wade, a new member of the Inside The NBA crew, explained why the conversation shouldn't be had to begin with.

“I've talked to LeBron a lot and obviously he's torn up,” said Wade. “I asked him ‘if you [were] in my seat, what would you say tonight?' and his biggest message was the media always tried to put myself, you, and other guys that was good at this game against Kobe, but what they don't know is that we were trying to do our very best to make him proud of us. To make him respect us.

“All we wanted to do was win so that we could be at his level. But everyone wants to put us against him, but we were just trying to make him proud of us.”

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James and Wade were part of the generation that followed Kobe Bryant, as he was already a seven-year pro by the time the two aforementioned broke into the league as rookies in 2003.

They've been chasing a three-time champion from the time they were rookies, but that respect comes with a lot of games played, playoff appearances, and some level of hardware to go with it.

Wade was the first one with a ring in 2006, then the duo of him and James in 2012, eventually progressing and catching up to his greatness. Bryant inspired Wade and James as competitors, so it could feel somewhat unfair to compare them, especially when James still has proved to have a lot left in the tank — and even more so in the wake of Bryant's tragic death at 41 years old.