LeBron James, Dwyane Wade Say Miami Heat Faced More Pressure Than Lakers

June 25, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade (left) and small forward LeBron James (right) stand in front of the championship trophy at the 2012 NBA championship rally at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /

The Miami Heat are no stranger to the national media attention after becoming the first case of a “super team” in today’s NBA when LeBron James bolted the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Dwyane Wade in South Beach. The Heat faced a lot of pressure to win in their first season but failed to bring home the trophy.

Finally, the team came together and captured the 2012 NBA Championship and saw the pressure to win lifted.

This year, the Los Angeles Lakers are facing the same pressure this season after acquiring all-stars Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in the offseason.

While the Lakers are facing the national pressure, James and Wade want it to be known that the Lakers are having it easy compared to what the Heat had faced.

“No one will ever be able to compare what we went through,” James said, per the Miami Herald. “Even though they’re not winning and they’re losing a lot of games, it’s still nowhere near what we went through.

“Yeah, right. That level of magnitude was nowhere near where ours was two years ago. Nothing. Nothing compares to it.”

Wade shared the same thoughts. The Miami Heat were made publicly enemy number one as soon as LeBron joined the squad. For the Lakers, everyone seemed to praise the decision by Los Angeles to bring Kobe Bryant, Nash and Howard together.

“Because of everything that happened in 2010 with offseason signings, it was, automatically, just a lot of negative things that was said about us,” Wade said. “[Los Angeles] didn’t go through that at the beginning. They didn’t go through anything negative about bringing those guys together, so ours started off bad and it stayed bad for a while, and then we got better.”

While you understand why the Heat may want to compare their situation to the Lakers, it is a hard thing to do. The Lakers made their basketball moves and stayed relatively quiet. Miami, on the other hand, made a big production out of their acquisition of the “Big Three.”

At least Miami has one thing to hang their hats on, they are winning and the Lakers are not.