Last night I overheard a conversation that made me nearly throw up. The conversation was centered around the best players in basketball, and as I walked by this exchange was taking place:
Guy 1: No way you don’t include D-Wade on that list.
Guy 2: I’m not sure if he is in that upper tier of players.
Guy 1: What?! He carried a crappy team to an NBA Championship!
Guy 1 should be shot, plain and simple (For more details on his completely inaccurate analysis of Dwyane Wade’s accomplishments see point No.2 below).
My disillusion with Dwyane Wade could stem from a number of sources. For all I know it could have started when he wrecked my bracket at Marquette (who really had Marquette in the Elite Eight that year?).
While I genuinely dislike the player, I couldn’t find a common thread to center this article around. Because of this, I decided to produce a rant against Dwyane Wade through a fantastic series of bullet points.
Here are the reasons why I am glad that Dwyane Wade is out of the playoffs (and consequently can no longer be proverbially dry-humped by referees and media alike):
1 – I Remember 2006
This might not be the most relevant point to the article, but if I am making a list of why I dislike Dwyane Wade this has to be number one.
Dwyane Wade committed theft in 2006, robbing the Dallas Mavericks of a should-have-been-could-have-been National Championship. I do not like the Mavericks nor have I ever been a Mavericks fan, but even I sent out my deepest condolensces to Mavs’ jackass owner Mark Cuban after the 2006 NBA Finals officiating.
Consider these scrumptious tid-bits of knowledge:
-
Wade Earning the Finals MVP
Wade obliterated the NBA Finals 6 game series record for free throw attempts, tallying 97 total attempts
- Wade surpassed Shaquille O’Neal (93 attempts in the 2000 NBA Finals) to obtain this record. You might recall, the only reason O’Neal attempted this many free throws is because the other team was intentionally trying to foul him (Hack-A-Shaq)
- Translation: Dwyane Wade shot more free throws in the 2006 NBA Finals than a player who was intentionally fouled nearly every possession in multiple games of a series.
- Wade shot 25 free throw attempts in game five alone. To put this into perspective, the entire Dallas Mavericks team also shot 25 free throws that game. Bill Simmons had this to say about game five: “Dwyane Wade shot as many free throws (25) as the entire Dallas team in Game 5. I just don’t see how there’s any way this can happen in a fairly-called game. It’s theoretically impossible.”
All fanhood aside, any NBA follower had to recognize that D-Wade probably sent a personalized gift basket to every official involved in the 2006 NBA Finals.
For anyone who thinks this was a thing of the past take a look at the Miami-Atlanta Game Six box score from Saturday night: Dwyane Wade FTA – 17, Atlanta Hawks Entire Roster FTA – 16.
I’m not directly implying foul play, but it makes you wonder doesn’t it? To quote Simmons again, I just don’t see how there’s any way this can happen in a fairly-called game. It’s theoretically impossible.”
2 – Despite What the Favre-esque Media Coverage Will Tell You; Dwyane Wade Cannot and Did Not Win an NBA Championship By Himself
Shaq Made This Guy An All-Star
Basketball experts will lead you to believe that Dwyane Wade led a team of misfits to an NBA title in 2006. What these experts forget is that Wade has the assistance of one of the greatest and arguably the most dominant center of all-time.
Loaded down with rings from a three-peat in Los Angeles, Shaquille O’Neal arrived in Miami and instantly accelerated Dwyane Wade’s progression into an NBA superstar. This was nothing new to Shaq, however, as he previously played with one time All-Star Anfernee Hardaway and future Hall-of-Famer Kobe Bryant.
I’m not saying D-Wade didn’t lead the Heat in 2006, but I am saying that he did it with some serious help in Shaquille O’Neal. O’Neal has a savvy for turning young talented guards into superstars, and he did it again in Miami.
3 – Dwyane Wade Stands For Everything I Dislike in the Modern NBA
Also See: Paul Pierce.
The NBA is in one of its largest downswings in history. The last time its fanbase got this low, Michael Jordan and crew showed up and everything was cured by the early 1990s.
I have recently stopped regularly watching the NBA, but it’s not for a lack of starpower. Instead, my lack of NBA enthusiasm came from a complete disinterest in the style of basketball currently played in the NBA.
Dwyane Wade is not the only player who personifies this new style of play, but he is one of them.
Here is a sample of what I dislike about the NBA’s new style of play:
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"F*** Team Basketball!"
The Me-First Mentality - An example of this is blocked shots. Dwyane Wade improved his blocked shots for the 2008-09 season. When asked why, Wade emphasized that opponents had to know that they couldn’t go up against him. Really, Dwyane? You couldn’t say because blocks help your team? Or that you just wanted to get better on defense? No. You opted for the most self-glorifying answer available. Bill Russell often criticizes modern shot-blockers for their actions after the block. According to Russell, the point of a block is to either gain possession of the ball or deflect it to a teammate. Not in the modern NBA… The modern NBA says: hit the ball as far as you can into the bleachers then do some sort of celebration into the camera. That is what I hate about the NBA right now.
- The Year-Round All-Star Game Defense – The NBA may as well change their slogan to “We might not play defense but we will definitely dunk the ball a lot!” As players focus more on scoring and less on defense the NBA has shifted to a business focused more on entertainment than basketball fundamentals. The NBA All-Star game infamously lacks defense because thats what All-Star game fans want to see. Unfortunately, this tendency is finding it’s way into the regular season as well.
- The Abandonment of Rules In Favor of Ratings - Traveling. Enough said. I have never seen the intergrity of a sport more compromised than when the NBA unofficially loosened its officiating on traveling violations.
Does that blow your mind? That just happened! Players don’t understand that you are allowed either a pivot or a jump stop. Often times players take both and then take a third or fourth. There is no such thing as a “crab dribble,” or a number of variations to the jump stop. Instead, there are just hordes of basketball players who have discovered that the NBA is not strict on a players movements as he cuts through the key…
Will he win the MVP this year? Probably. Should he win the MVP this year? Maybe. But this has nothing to do with the fact that I cannot stand the combination of his style of play and the media’s obsession with him.
In layman’s terms: I’m tired of hearing about Dwyane Wade and because of this I am glad that he is out of this year’s NBA Playoffs.
Comment with what you agree and disagree on.
sk.
scottykimberly
anthonymoore
howeysays
He is a terrible human being. I heard he kills kittens daily.
That and he has the bias of practically every ref.
Being a Dallas fan… I hate him with every thread of my being.
Just to be clear, answer this question “Do you think D-Wade should be in the top five best basketball players right now?”
Whatever Blake Riggle says I agree.
2006 Finals was the most frustrating series ever. On a side note, the Mavs-Spurs 06 playoff matchup was one of the greatest. Five games decided by five points or less. Game 7 went into overtime which, I think, Dallas ended up winning.
But as my mother says… “be considerate.”
You chomp on the NBA for not playing with heart, but Mark Cuban has more care about his team than half the NBA owners put together. At least give him that.
“Wade is also a devout Christian and chose the number 3 because it represents the Holy Trinity. He tithes 10% of his salary to a church in Chicago.” – Wiki. Aw, now I love him again.
Wade has a very physical style of play and anyone who’s reffed A-team basketball games (very prestigious, I know) has an incredibly hard time reffing it. Now times that by ten and try to be as fair as possible. Yeah, the fouls on Wade were way over the top, but it’s not impossible to conceive seeing how Dallas was one of the worst defenses at the time. I mean we literally had guys on the bench whose only purpose was to pick up fouls, not figure out how to defend people. And their coach sure didn’t help.
The block-quote is a little “eh…” Every off-season every good player is going to evaluate their game and think what they can do better as an individual to help the team. I’m sure it was somewhere in his mind. But watching his style of play, you could argue the selfishness. I felt like the series depended on who was hotter: the Hawks or D-Wade. Game 7 he was shut down most of the night which means he’s going to take more shots, apparently. It probably just comes down to him not having faith enough in his team. Which is ridiculous when you’re playing with one of the greatest Alaskan basketball players of all-time! <—trivia question!
Couldn’t agree with you more Scotty. I honestly hate where the NBA has gone. They took away the team concept by changing the hand check rules to make athletic slashers become dominate by the ridiculous amounts of foul calls, taking away the hard fouls, ignoring the 5 steps people taking while driving ,and pushing the young talent in this league.
We live in a world today where Sportcenter puts a dunk by Lebron(typically had his 12 step crab dribble as he likes to call it) as its number one spot in the top ten nightly when other aspects of sports are much more deserving. Kids at home are watching and realizing if they want to get to the NBA, don’t work on the little aspects of your game, be athletic, hog the ball, dunk, and save your energy on the defensive end. Due to this, it will be a long time before we get the game of basketball back to the way it used to be.
Was there star power back in the 80’s? Hell yeah, but there was a focus on the team, knowing your role, and playing tough basketball. Do you really think Wade would be strolling to the hoop back in the 80’s against Detroit…not likely.
(Interesting side note( since you brought up Simmons), I completely agree with Bill Simmons on how the NBA doesn’t rig games, but they tweak them by sending their worst refs at certain times. Great read. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060620 )
I get what the league did. To stay competitive with other sports financially, the needed the younger stars to step up and bring back some more excitement to the game. To an extent, I think it worked for a while, but more and more fans are becoming tired of the same old crap( with numerous teams losing money, I think it is a bit obvious and don’t blame the economy, this was happening before the fallout). I for one am tired of stupid forced shots at the beginning of a shot clock to pad stats, I’m tired of refs bailing out a crazed slasher going to the rim as the last second after 5 offensive fouls( see any Denver Nugget) , I’m tired of Kobe, Lebron,Wade, or anyone else that is allowed 5 steps while driving. Get back to the team game. Learn about ball movement, the disappearing mid-range game, how to effectively use a post.
While I was hard on Lebron and Wade, I believe they could be Stars in any generation, but how the rules are slated now( and how certain ones are ignored), I believe the NBA pushed these guys to that level.
And for anyone who actually watched the NBA finals that year( and I mean watched, not heard about it while you were being a camp consular for the summer yet claim you watched all the games) those foul calls were about the most ridiculous calls I have ever seen in my entire life. That being said, Dallas will never win a championship as long as David Stern is in charge. He simply won’t allow it
I agree with a lot of what you say Will, but I disagree a few points.
Dallas was in the top ten in defense the year they went to the finals( Number 7 actually). Yeah we didn’t have the big stopper that some had( Harris was pretty good til he wasn’t allowed to be with-in 5 feet of Wade), but we played hard team defense. Avery may be the dumbest head coach of all time, but at that time the players will killing themselves for him. He was a hellava motivator. I understand it is hard to judge physical play, but anyone watching that series remembers Wade punching dirk on the screen and somehow Dirk was called for an offensive foul….great stuff Stern.
I think another thing that is hard for Dallas is because we were in the bottom half of the league in fouls called that year. So going from being a team that plays defense, doesn’t foul, and gets to the foul line to a team that fouls a lot, gives up too many points, and never sees the strip in the matter of 4 games is pretty shocking.
So i guess i only disagreed the one point..great stuff.
Howey, what’s your source for the Mavs’ D, I’m having trouble finding one myself.
Avery never adapted or changed his gameplay, which was his biggest flaw. He did get guys to play their best though, I’ll give you that. But good points. Let’s just all agree that the Mavs actually won that series.
I would love to see a blog on awards that should have gone to the guys/teams that deserved them.
I used Yahoo Stats for that info. Great place to find most stats. I used points allowed for the the 7th ranked defense. I now there are other tools to judge defense, but in the words of the immortal John Madden,” The team that scores the most points in points is probably gonna get out of here with a win.”
100% with you on the Avery comment. I always had this feeling he was trying to make us into the Spurs with how he would constantly use iso’s and try and keep dirk in the post. Now I love Dirk at the top of the key shooting, driving, and being aggressive, but he isn’t a back to the basket kinda player. Its funny, he learned under two coaches that are able to use adjustments or make people us to them, but apparently he missed that lesson. I thin Avery is a great motivator, but when the players stop believing in you( like Dallas at the end of last year), your pretty much worthless. I will say I miss the intensity he helped bring us on the Defensive end of the floor. On the whole, our defense and rotations have been terrible this year.
I agree…in my mind..the Mavs won..I just wish I could have seen David Stern begrudgingly hand the trophy over to Mark Cuban. People are hard on him, but he cares about his team more than any other owner( as evidence by his taking a lose the last few years but continuing to try to build a team).
I won’t get in on the “scorned mavs fans hating on wade” session… but Anfernee Hardaway would have been in the Hall of Fame with 2 good knees.
And NOBODY has a better campaign slogan than “little penny”… NOBODY.
But how much of Penny’s progression was his natural skills and much was nurtured by having Shaq-Daddy in the post?
Obviously he had incredible natural abilities, but having Shaq in the paint to completely change defensive schemes is a luxury few young guards have ever had…
sk.
I don’t even miss a step when I see a penny on the ground. Now whenever I see German change, that’s something I reach out and grab.
You a Hater Dawg. Dont be mad casue yo poor ass is at home watching him. So shut yo hateign ass up and get off kobe and lebron D. By the way you owe him 1.75 casue you ride him like the marta bus.
…. This guy above me obviously knows what he is talking about. Everyone bow before him.
Dwyane Wade just booshed all over this blog.
if you hate on penny I will have to hunt you down and kill you Will… with a spoon
I will spoon with you any time.
That sounds like a CHALLENGE!
Dude I just saw this… spooning challenge accepted… either version ;)
Three-way?
I really don’t understand. Why must everybody hate on Dwyane Wade. He is one of the greatest basketball players to ever play the game of basketball. Ok he didn’t make it to the final four or the championship game, but hey at least he it to the elite eight, which alot of teams did not reach. The Miami Heat has created a monster/beast no one can tame. Robbery, that’s just stupid, FLASH earned the 2006 Championship. (including team mates) If the Mavs really wanted it they should have chased after it harder
If by “everyone” you mean “just the guy who wrote the blog” then I agree.
What I don’t agree with is your comment about the 06 finals. Did you watch them? Had the Mavs tried any harder they would have been given technical fouls on Wade.
Dear lilkylun, your comment is so laced with opinion and overgeneralizations that I’m not sure where to start.
First, Dwyane Wade is NOT one of the greatest players to play basketball. Yet. He might be, by the time he hangs it up, but to say he is now is just ignorant.
Second, the Miami Heat have created what? Shaq fostered D-Wade’s growth and the shift in the NBA’s style of play and style of officiating led to D-Wade being a star. The Heat didn’t create anything, they simply drafted a player who grew into a prototypical modern NBA star.
Third, “Flash” did earn the NBA title… from the foul line. He could never have done it without Shaq, and he could have never done it without the officials. Period.
Thanks for the input, but next time I would appreciate a little more grounded approach. All that came across as was a D-Wade fan who got offended by this piece.
sk.
Boosh.