Tim_Hardawayy wrote:MMyhre wrote:HMFFL wrote:Basically? SGA is 26 years old, has made the All NBA first team in three straight seasons, and has won MVP, and was the MVP runner up at 25 years old. DWade never accomplished any of that or made an NBA first team until he was 27 years old.
Well, this is because he lost the 2007 and 2008 season, where he had a case for being the best player in the world. Thats like Shai getting injured in february of this year and not getting back being fresh until the start of the 26-27 season. That would be a lot of lost awards for Shai as well.
And he lost an MVP to like maybe the best regular season of all time in 08/09 LeBron.. and I know he finished 3rd behind Kobe but that was just some ****, Lakers were **** stacked. 2006-2008 was very doable MVP years for a fresh Wade, he was at 30,6 pts 63,5 + TS 8,1 asts 4,3 rebs 2,3 steals 2 + blocks 6-2 winning record +78 +/- in the month before he got injured in february 2007. Sounds like an MVP calibre player to me and one million % first team all nba to me. So dont be so strong with your statements if you arent willing to dig in and do proper research.
It honestly frustrates me a lot that so many people do not know that Wade was the best player in the world and got injured. Like he drops 40 pts 11 ast 5 blocks 4 steals in a head to head matchup against prime Kobe in the slow paced 2000`s, and you`re talking as if he was some bum compared to Shai. Just disrespectful. And his team was full of lazy veterans that stopped caring and a party culture led by the one and only Shaq, which was why the Heat imploded despite Wade doing his best to carry the load.
This is a good point. HMFFL's take doesn't upset me because its the normie take anyways, its like being upset someone thinks Allen Iverson is a top 10 player of all time, it is what it is, some people just don't care enough to dig deeper.
Wade's a weird case because he's like half a Penny or Grant Hill story. Whereas those guys looked like top 25 or better players of all time who got hurt just as they were entering their prime and never returned to form, Wade got hurt, lost 2 prime seasons, but bounced back and put up 3 more true prime seasons before his body started to fail him again (he had his meniscus removed in college, which is why he had persistent knee problems later in his career). So we sort of got to see him at his full potential, but it was constantly getting interrupted. First by injury, then even when he bounced back the roster was terrible because Miami was saving for 2010, then when the stars could align, two things happened, the Heat somehow got the 1 player who was better than him to join their team, and Wade's knees started creaking again the very next year.
If you rewatch the 2011 Finals highlights, beyond Dirk's storybook ending, the most dominant player in that series was Wade. Woulda coulda shoulda, but its not hard to envision a reality where if he doesn't get his meniscus removed in college, the Heat stay competitive after 2006, reload a bit the next couple of seasons, and he goes on to win a couple more championships as the clear lead guy (prime Shaq was still fresh in people's memory in 2006 even if he was already a shell of himself by the second half of that season). Instead, he loses 2 prime years to injury, loses 2 more to the Heat playing the long game of roster construction, and loses the remainder of his prime to playing in the shadow of LeBron and his own knees catching back up to him.
(to play devil's advocate, I'm a huge Heat and Wade fan but I think its obvious he went hard with PED's to make the dramatic comeback he did in 2008. It is what it is though, I think more people do it than we'd ever care to know in the league, but I'm not going to play dumb on that)
To echo how much of a shame it is the timing of the 06-07 injury was, the Heat were without Shaq most of that season up to that point and Wade was carrying with Antoine Walker or an extremely aged and post kidney surgery Alonzo Mourning as his second best player. He got Jason Kapono a big contract with Toronto too, Raptors fans probably hate him for that. And Wade was destroying the league. Then Shaq comes back, the Heat go on a tear going into the ASB and he's looking like the clear best player in the league with his play, the Heat hitting their stride and him coming off that Finals performance (in fairness to Dirk, he and the Mavs were having a great year too).
First game after the break, he's doing his thing, and a total freak injury where Shane Battier is fighting him for a rebound and pulls his arm right out of its socket. Funny that Battier ended up being a key part of the future championship teams, I guess he's redeemed somewhat in Heat fans' eyes, but I'll never forget how much that injury sucked.
Fast forward, Wade rushes back for the playoffs but is incredibly rusty, messes up the chemistry because the team had gotten used to playing two months without him, and doesn't have his normal lift because his knee is starting to act up. Then that summer instead of getting the knee surgery he needed, he has to focus on rehabbing his torn labrum due to rushing back for the playoffs. Gets back late for the 07-08 season and plays the year on a flat tire, you can always tell highlights from that season because its the only young Wade highlights where his hops are as bad as old Wade highlights. Then shuts it down early when that season turns into a disaster for various reasons (Riley thinking Ricky Davis could be an upgrade over Antoine Walker was a big one, he ended up being a sidegrade that cost the Heat future draft capital). And finally gets the knee surgery he should have had the prior offseason, then rehabs like a madman (probably starts PED's at this time as well), and looks like the best player in the world on the redeem team.
Its a complicated history though, so like I said, it doesn't anger me that people who weren't Heat fans or following this stuff just dismiss it and assume Shaq was Lakers Shaq, or all the details and nuance/timing of Wade's injuries and resurgence.
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