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Having played on their own version of it with LeBron James and Chris Bosh during their Miami Heat days, Dwyane Wade believes that “super teams” are great for the NBA.
Speaking to reporters after the Chicago Bulls‘ practice on Thursday, Wade gave his thoughts on how the creation of these types of teams is a good thing for the league: Per Nick Friedell of ESPN:
“I think certain moments — it's great. At the end of the day, whether you dislike the Heat or you loved the Heat, you was tuning in to watch the Heat, right? Same thing with Golden State. Whether you dislike what happened with Kevin Durant or whatever the case may be, you're going to tune into watch, whether you want him to succeed or fail.
“Our game is growing. Eyes are on our game. And at the end of the day, me as a player, I just love the fact that players have the ability to control their own destiny.
“That's what we fight for when it comes to lockouts and all these things. We want to be able to do the things we want to be able to do because they can trade us at any moment, they can get rid of us at any moment. So to have the power to be able to do what we did in 2010 — that felt great. That was a great moment for us. Three young African-American kids got an opportunity to control their own destiny and call their own shots. That's what we wanted. So our game is not taking a hit; our game has only grown.”
Wade certainly makes a good point on how much attention a “super team” will get and the popularity of the NBA gets a major boost also. But the negative effect that comes with it is the lack of parity it produces, with some teams taking a huge hits, especially the so-called “small-market teams.”
The ramifications of what the Marquette product and his former teammates did in 2010 is still felt by the league up to this day. Teams have formed their own versions of a “Big Three” or “super teams.” Though they knew that joining forces would change the NBA's landscape for years to come, Wade never envisioned it to be talked about this much, and even after years past.
“I never thought that it would be possible, but when it presented itself, you open it up, you start the conversation, you start looking at it a little different, and that's what happened. So thank everybody for thinking we were that smart, but this is something that kind of happened when it happened.”
“We can all nitpick at what's going to be different, but at the end of the day you won't know until the end of the season. For us, we had a lot of growing pains, but at the end of the day we were in the Finals in our first year of playing together. We were just great talent. We weren't the team we needed to be [yet], but we were still in the Finals. So you just never know.
Winning championships will ultimately define the success of a formed “super team,” but as Wade mentioned, whether people will love or hate the idea of it, these teams generate worldwide interest which serves the NBA well.
