10 Reasons to Love NBA All Star Dwyane Wade
The Basketballs lab Heat’s Dwyane Wade is one of the greatest shooting guards to ever play in the NBA, and we LOVE this guy! Along with being one of our favorite players, Dwyane is a multiple time champion, a perennial All Star, and the winner of the 2006 NBA Finals MVP Award. He was the star of one of the most exciting Finals series in recent memory in 2006, and he was responsible for helping bring the city of Miami it’s first ever championship. Since the Heat acquired Lebron James in 2010, Dwyane has become increasingly overshadowed by basketball fans and casual observers, but he’s still a very good player today. Here are 10 reasons to love Dwyane Wade.
Dwyane Wade plays defense.
Dwyane has been a pretty good scorer throughout his career, even leading the league in scoring average one season. But that doesn’t stop him from giving effort on the defensive end of the court. There have been many scorers in the NBA who feel like they don’t have a responsibility to defend because of their offensive production, but Dwyane has never taken that attitude. Although he has only been named to an NBA All Defensive Team twice, he has been recognized for being one of the best “2-way” guards in the league. And even though he has taken a backseat to his teammate Lebron James on the offensive end, he frequently still guards the other team’s best perimeter player, filling a major role for his team.
He plays bigger than his size.
You might not know this, but Dwyane Wade is undersized for an NBA shooting guard. He is 6’4” when most shooting guards are 6’6” and above. But Dwyane has never had trouble scoring against bigger defenders, and he has been one of the best shot blocking guards in the league over his career. He is Top 200 in NBA history in blocks and has a chance to finish in the Top 140 by the time his career is done. That includes players of all positions, not just guards.
Dywane is fearless in attacking the rim.
Dwyane Wade plays in a relentless, attacking style that we love. For his career, Dwyane takes more than a third of his shot attempts within 3 feet of the basket, and he gets to the free throw line more than 8 times per game. That’s an incredible number. You have to love a guy that is undeterred by the size and strength of bigger NBA defenders around the rim.
He plays efficient basketball.
Dwyane shot 54.5% from the field in the 2013-2014 NBA season. That ranked 8th in the entire league, and 1st for guards. For his career he shoots a little over 49% from the field. That means he is taking smart shots and converting at a high clip. Dwyane was also the last player not named Lebron James or Kevin Durant to lead the league in Player Efficiency Rating (PER), a number that rates a player’s total performance in terms of efficiency. For his career Dwyane Wade currently ranks 8th on the ALL TIME list in PER.
Dwyane Wade is exciting to watch!
If you’re a fan of basketball you know that Dwyane Wade has been one of the most exciting players to watch over his career. He has one of the best Euro-steps in the league (we actually use him and Manu Ginobili as examples when teaching this move), he has one of the best crossovers in the league, and he’s not afraid to throw it down on the big man at the rim. And with the speed he has displayed in attacking defenses, it’s no wonder he picked up the nickname ‘Flash’ early in his career.
Dwyane Wade has style.
Okay…not all the time, but it’s always “interesting” to see what new outfit he will come out in from game to game. At the very least he keeps us entertained.
Dwyane is a good teammate.
By all accounts, Dwyane is a pretty good teammate. You never really know for sure if this is true unless you are playing with that person, but from what we can see and gather, we believe this is true. You don’t see Dwyane yelling and screaming at teammates a lot; you see him joking with teammates often on the bench. Dorrell Wright, a former teammate of Wade’s for 6 seasons, gave his son the middle name “Dwyane”, naming him after Wade. A teammate thinking highly enough of you to name their son after you says a lot, at least in our view.
Dwyane Wade swallowed his pride for the good of his team.
When Lebron James and Chris Bosh joined the Miami Heat in 2010, they were seen as a 3-headed monster. Each of those guys were perennial All Stars and at or near the top of their positions. Wade and James were considered to the co-leaders of the team, and in Year 1 they both played like it. When that year ended in disappointment, Wade realized that he needed to take a step back and let Lebron be the clear and undisputed team leader. I imagine it was a hard thing to do and continue to do for a player of Wade’s stature, someone who had been considered one of the best players in the league over his career. We salute him for it, because it turned out to be what was best for the team. The Heat won NBA championships in Year 2 and Year 3 with Lebron being both the regular season MVP and Finals MVP in each of those seasons.
He keeps on ticking and ignoring the critics.
Critics of Wade have been counting him out for years, saying that he is too old and too injury riddled to continue to be effective. And although there is some truth to this because Wade has clearly struggled with injuries, he continues to fight back and be there when his team needs him most. His vintage Game 4 performance in the 2013 NBA Finals helped secure a must needed Miami win and swung momentum back in favor of the Heat. And in these 2014 playoffs Wade is showing up big again. We love the fighter mentality that Wade has taken towards those whp have lost faith in his abilities.
Dwyane brought Miami its 1st Championship in heroic fashion!
The 2006 Finals was Dwyane’s “coming out party” to many, as he looked like a basketball superhero in that series. After being down 2 games to none, Miami was down by 17 points in the second half of Game 3. Dwyane led a furious comeback to give the Heat the 2 point victory. He stayed in takeover mode the rest of the series and Miami won the championship in 6 games. His 34.7 Finals scoring average is one of the highest ever, and in 2012 ESPN rated his Finals performance as the GREATEST individual Finals performance ever. Of course that’s a subjective rating, but he sure did put on an incredible performance; everyone could see that. And for that reason he will always be beloved in the city of Miami and respected among basketball fans worldwide.
Dwyane Wade is an exciting and effective player who has been a cornerstone of the Miami Heat franchise for over a decade. He embodies many of the tangible and intangible qualities we endeavor to instill in the youth basketball players we work with today. We’ve enjoyed watching him work over the years and hope that you have too, as he’s one of the great players in our era, and one of the greatest to ever wear a Miami Heat uniform!