Dwyane Wade doesn’t believe LeBron will make a ‘basketball decision’
By Cody Rivera
With free agency coming up, Dwyane Wade believes his former teammate LeBron James isn’t concerned about basketball reasons.
NBA teams and fans might be focusing their attention on the upcoming draft, but truth be told, the biggest NBA storyline going around right now is the impending free agency of the one and only LeBron James. For the third time in his career, he has us waiting anxiously on the edge of our seats to find out what team he’s going to take his talents to next.
James will be turning 34 years old later this year, and he’s made a number of decisions during his career that would be considered “basketball decisions.” But this time around, his former teammate Dwyane Wade believes that basketball won’t factor into it. At this stage in his life, Wade believes personal reasons are going outweigh basketball reasons.
Wade discussed the topic during an interview on Fox Sports Radio.
“To me, I don’t think it’s a basketball thing,” Wade said. “Obviously, he’s shown this year he can get to the Finals no matter what the circumstances are. I don’t really think, for him, (it’s a) basketball decision of saying, ‘oh, let me team up with three All-Stars.’”
Everybody knows the story of LeBron’s origins. He was raised by a single mother in Akron, Ohio and they never had much money when he was growing. But thanks to LeBron’s unmatchable basketball talents, that all changed. He was drafted to the NBA directly out of high school, chosen by the nearby Cleveland Cavaliers. He dedicated the first seven years of his career to the Cavs, but after failing repeatedly to win a championship, he felt like he needed to make a change.
That was when he made the infamous 2010 decision to join Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, creating the Heat’s ‘Big Three’ that would capture four consecutive Eastern Conference titles and two NBA championships. That was purely a basketball decision because LeBron left Cleveland for Miami with the sole purpose of finally winning a championship. Teaming up with two other superstars like Wade and Bosh all but guaranteed at least one title.
In 2014, LeBron then made the decision to disband Miami’s Big Three and return to the Cavaliers. This decision wasn’t made so much for basketball reasons as it was for loyalty reasons; LeBron has always deeply loved northeast Ohio and felt like he owed it to his homeland to deliver a championship. He finally accomplished that in 2016 when the Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals to defeat the Golden State Warriors, winning the city of Cleveland its first professional sports championship in 52 years.
Now that LeBron has essentially accomplished his basketball goals, it makes sense why Wade would believe that his next decision will be solely for personal reasons.
“I think at this point in his life, it’s more so of a lifestyle thing of where my family is going to be the most comfortable and where I’m going to be the happiest,” Wade continued during his interview. “Because basketball-wise, he’s so great, he can bring along and take along whoever.”
If LeBron’s biggest concern is his family, then the best decision for him would be to remain with the Cavaliers. Both he and his wife grew up in northeast Ohio, and their two oldest children were both born during LeBron’s first stint with the Cavs. Their third child was born around the same time that he returned to Cleveland for his second stint with the Cavs. Northeast Ohio is the first and foremost home to the James family, and it always will be.
Next: Dan Gilbert believes he can build a champion without LeBron
However, basketball reasons might unintentionally come into play. We all witnessed how LeBron was a one-man basketball team during the 2018 playoffs, not to mention all the grief caused to him by some of his Cleveland teammates in the NBA Finals.
The big question is: would LeBron be OK with continuing to be a one-man team with the Cavaliers as long his family is comfortable? We’ll find out next month.