Wade feels super teams are 'great' for NBA
The Heatles were the NBA's biggest villains during their four-year run together in South Beach, with Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh joining forces to capture two championships together as members of the Miami Heat.
They were a spectacle everywhere they went, as never before had three players of such pedigree in the prime of their careers come together through free agency. Whether or not it was good for the league as a whole, Wade feels super teams like the one he was a part of draw a high level of interest, and is a sign of the times that players ultimately hold the power in their hands.
"I think certain moments - it's great," Wade said following Chicago Bulls practice on Thursday, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. "I think our game - at the end of the day whether you dislike the Heat or you loved the Heat, you was tuning in to watch the Heat, right? Same thing with Golden State. Whether you dislike what happened with Kevin Durant or whatever the case may be, you're going to tune into watch whether you want him to succeed or fail. Our game is growing. Eyes are on our game. And at the end of the day, me as a player, I just love the fact that players have the ability to control their own destiny.
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"That's what we fight for when it comes to lockouts and all these things. We want to be able to do the things we want to be able to do because they can trade us at any moment, they can get rid of us at any moment. So to have the power to be able to do what we did in 2010 - that felt great. That was a great moment for us. Three young African-American kids got an opportunity to control their own destiny and call their own shots. That's what we wanted, so our game is not taking a hit, our game has only grown."
Success didn't come right away for this All-Star union, as the Heat fell to the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals during their first season together. It was the culmination of a campaign where the perception of all three men had dramatically changed, with a level of pressure to win the likes of which had never been seen before.
"That first year was a tough year for us," Wade said. "You've got guys who at that time had been in this league, and fans love. Media wasn't too bad on us either. And everything turned because we decided to play together.
"From a competitive standpoint you love that it was sold out every time you go to the arena, but just the things that people had to say about us deciding to play the game of basketball together. There was a lot of negative attention on that. We took the hit of that. No one else is going to take that kind of hit when it comes to that."
The Heatles have since disbanded, with James going home to Cleveland two years ago, Wade signing with the Bulls over the summer, and Bosh looking to get back to good health in order to resume his career after all but parting ways with Miami.