Dwyane Wade says LeBron James is not his GOAT

Everyone has their own pick in the NBA’s GOAT argument. For Dwyane Wade, his familiarity with LeBron James is not the deciding factor.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have a long history. They were both selected in the 2003 draft — LeBron at No. 1, Wade at No. 5. They teamed up and won two titles together with the Miami Heat, played hundreds of games together both with the Heat and the Cavaliers in the twilight of Wade’s career, and another 31 as opponents through the years. Even now, with Wade in retirement and LeBron still chasing titles, they remain close friends.

But all of that history hasn’t changed the way Wade feels about the NBA GOAT discussion. His pick is the same it’s always been, as he explained during a recent appearance on Brandon Marshall’s I Am Athlete show.

What did Dwyane Wade have to say about LeBron James and his GOAT pick?

“LeBron is one of my good friends, I have so much respect for what he’s doing now, what he’s done, and what he will eventually do… It will definitely be an argument that needs to be had. If LeBron ends up the number scorer of all-time, top five in assists and top five rebounds, with four, five, or six championships, you cannot do nothing but have the conversation of who is the GOAT.”

Later in the conversation, Wade added more:

“I come from the Jordan era, so I’m biased. Michael Jordan will always be my GOAT… I played basketball because of Michael Jordan… All of us have our own individual opinions… LeBron is going to be the GOAT for a lot of generations… [Jordan] will be my GOAT… I made it out of the hood because I’ve seen a dude, number 23 play the game of basketball at a level where I was like I want to do some of that.”