J-Speaks: The Last Game Between LBJ and D-Wade

Nearly two decades ago, two Midwestern basketball players, a teenage phenom from Akron, OH and an Oak Lawn, IL native, who went to school at Marquette met at the 2003 NBA Draft scouting combine and began a life long friendship that has continued in their NBA careers to this day. They started as Eastern Conference rivals for their first seven seasons. They were then teammates in South Florida making four consecutive appearances in June winning two Larry O’Brien trophies and spent the half of last season together in “The Land.” They had one final showdown in the “City of Angels” on Monday night for all to see and it was one they both savored. 

In their last joint chapter on the hardwood of the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA four-time Kia league MVP and three-time NBA champion LeBron James nearly had his second triple-double of this season with 28 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in leading the Lakers (17-11) to a 108-105 win versus 2006 Finals MVP Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat (11-16) 108-105. Wade in his final matchup with his great friend and former teammate finished with his first double-double of the season with 15 points, all in the second half and 10 assists. 

Wade, who said he intends to retire at the conclusion of this season was sent out in style by the capacity crowd of 19,060 in the arena who gave him multiple standing ovations along with a tribute video in the opening period. Among those 19,000-plus in attendance was Wade’s better half in actress/entrepreneur Gabrielle Union, who saw her husband play 32 minutes in the contest and helped get his team back into the game in the second half. 

“This was the last time I was going to be able to guard him, so I waited until the end,” Wade, a 12-time All-Star, who was 6 for 19 shooting in the contest said after the loss. “He knows my moves just like I know his moves. I just wanted to enjoy the competition for the last time.”

The perennial All-Stars missed key shots down the stretch, but James connected on two key free throws with 22.5 seconds remaining. Wade and James also got a chance to guard one another down the stretch of the game as their respective teammates stepped back so they can both take in the moment. 

Wade even had a chance to tie the game in the closing moments, but his fallaway triple hit the backboard. His teammate Justise Winslow, who led the Heat with 28 points off the bench, going 11 for 20 from the floor, including 6 for 10 from three-point also had a chance to tie the score but his three-pointer was short as well as the final buzzer went off. 

After the final horn, the two future First-Ballot Hall of Famers embraced each other with a big hug surrounded by photographers and then exchanged jerseys after that with Wade even saying to the 14-time All-Star and three-time Finals MVP, “I appreciate you letting it end here.” 

James in the postgame interview with NBATV’s Dennis Scott said of the final tilt between him and D-Wade, which he now owns a 16-15 mark in their head-to-head matchups, “Like I’ve been saying all week it’s bitter sweet man. Every possession you was just like, ‘the next one is getting closer and closer to the last one.’” 

“So, a lot of emotions going on right now for me just knowing that I’m losing a brother in this game that I’ve had so many wars with. So many wars each other together and separate. So, there’s no better way to end it in Staples Center man and this is my guy man. This is my guy.” 

Wade echoed those same emotions with Scott saying about the game that this is why you play the game. To have the opportunity to go against or in his case to also play alongside one of the best. 

The 2010 All-Star Game MVP and three-time NBA champion played with and against a player that brought the best out of him and vice versa, and who said afterwards is very “thankful” to be in the same draft class as LBJ, where Wade was drafted No. 5 overall out of Marquette University and James was selected No. 1 overall out of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. More than just teammates, Wade and James had a friendship that extended beyond the hardwood that we all got a chance to see unfold right in front of our eyes.

That friendship began at the 2003 NBA Pre-Draft camp where Wade was sitting in the training room waiting for a long time when suddenly James strolls in. 

Wade said he was sitting there because as he told Rachel Nichols, host of ESPN’s “NBA: The Jump” in an interview a season ago when Wade just joined James and the then defending four-time Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers that as soon as James entered the room, the doctors checked him out right away. 

That began a friendship that culminated when James and Wade, along with fellow perennial All-Star Chris Bosh joined forces in South Florida in the summer of 2010. 

While the Heat reached The Finals in their first season together in 2010-11, they lost to the Dallas Mavericks and future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki in six games. 

Wade said to Nichols that setback, which put the so-called “Big Three” in as vulnerable a moment as you could possibly be as a professional athlete helped his relationship with James grow. 

That growth began when the two vacationed in the Bahamas, where in the first couple of days the two sat around the kitchen table of a house they rented and stewed over that setback that ultimately got the wheels rolling to where they won back-to-back titles the next two seasons taking down the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs in five and seven games respectably. 

Beyond climbing that mountain, Wade was dealing with some personal struggles of his own as he was divorcing his high school sweetheart Siohvaughn Funches, who is the mother of his two sons. 

In the process of the breaking of this union there a very rough custody battle, which Wade did win. 

Wade said having James in his corner at the moment where he became a full-time father was as he said to Nichols was “huge,” because he was able to do what he needed to do away from the floor and that he and his teammates have his back on the court. 

“The example that set coming from someone that never encountered a father growing up, to see one of your best friends gain custody of his kids. Fight for and say like, ‘I want my kids.’ That like helped me become a better father as well,” James said of the impact of what Wade went through had on him. 

To put this into context, Wade said that he called James asking him advice on what time his eight and three-year-old should go to sleep? 

Like a true friend, James was right there to lend his ear and his voice as best he could and that as what Wade said that the public does not see in which a tight bond is formed and eventually strengthen. 

“People see LeBron James and Dwyane Wade that plays basketball,” Wade said. “People don’t see the real-life humans. Two real-life people that have a relationship and a bond, and similar things that go on in their lives, and things that they help each other with in their lives.” 

That tight bond and respect these two had on the hardwood was just as powerful and respectful on the hardwood. 

We have to remember when James took as he said in that famous interview with then ESPN’s Jim Gray called “The Decision,” that he was “taking his talents to South Beach,” he had yet to win a championship while Wade already won one in 2006. 

In that famed introductory showing of Wade, James, and Bosh days later that summer at the American Airlines Arena Wade was introduced first and along the way James let his ora and his work ethic do his talking for him. 

What also took place is Wade, James, and Bosh made the decision as one to come together to what had never been done, form a super team via free agency.

Before that, teams like the Los Angeles Lakers of the “Showtime” era of the 1980s, the great Boston Celtics teams of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and other great teams happened organically via the draft. 

On top of that, the “Big Three” had a focus and togetherness that helped them get through some rough times to when they first got together the whole NBA nation from diehard fans to casual fans, and just sports fans in general were rooting for them to fail, especially in Cleveland for how LBJ left. 

Perhaps the telling moment of how much respect D-Wade and LBJ have for one another as close friends was four summers back when James decided to opt out of the final year of his contract and return to the Cavaliers as a free agent. 

When ESPN.com’s Ramona Shelburne asked Wade about how hard it was for James to make that decision, he said to her, “I just said go do what’s best for LeBron.”

“I’m your friend. I’m going to care about you no matter what. And if this is what’s best for you, I want what’s best for you.” 

The other great lesson that LBJ and D-Wade showed in their 16-year journey in the NBA is they were going to be themselves and make their own decisions regardless of the opinions of others. 

Before they joined forces in the summer of 2010, James, and Wade when they were opponents in Cleveland and Miami, they stayed together in each other’s homes during opposing road games and even went out to dinner on a few occasions. 

That made a lot of people, especially many who played in the 1980s and 1990s of the NBA that Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, and Earvin “Magic” Johnson would never be seen being chummy with one another, except maybe during All-Star Weekend. 

We kind of forget “Magic” Johnson and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas had a friendship off the court and were very close being from the Midwest and Thomas learned how to become a champion by seeing Johnson do it first and we all know what happened after. 

What James and Wade did is that they made their friendship public and they brought the best out of each other both on the floor and off of it and became great friends who happened to be two of the best to ever play in the National Basketball Association. 

“We got a chance to see just greatness,” NBATV analyst and NBA champion in 2003 with the San Antonio Spurs Steve Smith said on Monday night. “We know on the court, but what I love is they matched their greatness on the court with their off the court as people.”

Thomas, now an NBATV studio analyst said on Monday night that Wade along with the great Michael Jordan and former Laker great and future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant are “game changers.” 

“When you talk about generational players, okay Dwyane Wade was a generational player along with Kobe. Along with Michael who set the standards for their generation.” 

Hall of Famer and fellow NBATV studio analyst Kevin McHale said that he admires the most about Wade is that he was an all-out player who had no problem getting on the floor to get a loose ball or attacking the hoop to score. 

He originally thought though that he would not last long in the league because of that all-out play but he added an in-between floater and expanded his range on his jump shot to match his ability to post-up and attack the rim.

“If you told me that he would have 22,000 points in his career I would’ve said, ‘No way,’” McHale said about Wade’s career production. “No jump shot. There’s no way that guy will be a scorer. He turned himself into a great pro.”  

At the start of this week in Los Angeles, CA the NBA nation and sports fans across the United States and even the world saw the 31^st and final meeting between two future Hall of Famers, who struck up a friendship that has gone beyond the hardwood. Both as opponents and as teammates they brought the best out of each other. They enjoyed the good times together and were there for another in the rough times both on and off the court. Above all they established a lifelong bond that we all got a chance to see unfold and represented a true definition of something that we all hope and wish to have. 

Last night the basketball chapter of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James may be over but this will not be the last time we see these to great basketball players and people together having an impact. 

“The friendship that we have you guys that’s beyond basketball, but I’m [gonna] missed this,” Wade said to Scott. “Like I’m gonna miss the [expletive] out of this man.”

James followed that by saying about Wade, “He’s one of the greatest players to ever play this game and just as privileged he is to enter the league with me it’s beyond mutual. So, we’re going to miss flash man, you know. We’re going to miss him in this league, that’s for sure.”

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 12/10/18 3 p.m. “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Ramona Shelburne, and Marc J. Spears; 12/11/18 10:30 p.m. NBATV “Players Only,” broadcast of Miami Heat versus Los Angeles Lakers with Greg Anthony, Candace Parker, Steve Smith, and Dennis Scott; 12/11/18 2 a.m. “Players Only” edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by Kia with Chris Webber, Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale; www.nba.com/games/20181210/MIALAL#/boxscore/recap; www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/1966/lebron-james; www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/id/1987/dwyane-wade; www.espn.com/nba/game?gameid=40107182; www.espn.com/nba/standings; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LeBron_James; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwyane_Wade.