Dwyane Wade Gives Take on Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James NBA GOAT Debate in Video
Basketball Hall of Famer and Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade provided a take on the Michael Jordan-LeBron James GOAT debate during the latest edition of his Wy Network podcast, "The Why with Dwyane Wade."
"LeBron-Jordan debate. Well, I just...How I'm gonna start defining it. It's no secret about it all. Michael Jordan is my basketball GOAT. Mine personally. For all the reasons that he should be. But I do have a new answer of the way I'm gonna start asking the question when people ask me.
"I'm going to say Michael Jordan is the greatest player I've ever watched. He is the greatest player I've ever watched. LeBron James is the greatest player I've ever seen. You feeling me?
"I never saw Michael Jordan. I watched Michael Jordan. I saw and I've seen LeBron James up close in person. I played against, and I played with. I personally have not seen a greater basketball player, but I've watched a great basketball player."
Wade has a unique experience and opinion when it comes to the Jordan-LeBron debate.
For starters, he spent his entire childhood in Chicago (where he was born in 1982) and the surrounding suburbs in the 1980s and 1990s. Growing up, the 43-year-old certainly watched and absorbed a good amount of Jordan's Chicago Bulls career, which spanned from 1984-1993 and then 1995-1998.
After a successful stint at Marquette, Wade entered the NBA in 2003 after the Miami Heat selected him fifth overall in the draft. James went No. 1 in that same draft to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the two played against each other from 2003-2010 before LeBron left town to join Miami with Wade and also forward Chris Bosh.
The three played together for four years, winning a pair of NBA titles before James returned to Cleveland. The two were opponents from 2014-2019, except for a 46-game stretch in 2017-18 when Wade played alongside James for the Cavs.
Wade and James were also teammates on Team USA for the 2004 Summer Olympics (bronze medal) and the 2008 Summer Olympics, where they were key members on the gold medal-winning Redeem Team.
So while Wade's vote for his basketball GOAT is Jordan, it's clear he respects James enough to call him the greatest player he's ever seen in person.
