Comparing their Careers: LeBron and Wade
LeBron and Wade: former adversaries, now teammates. Let's take a look at who has been better for the course of their respective careers.
Don't be confusing your comparison between NBA players over a short period of time and NBA players in the history books. Like I said before, comparing resume and stats are inaccurate. Why?
Stats do not take into consideration, but are largely affected by role, system, minutes played, teammates, age, possessions, pace, injuries, competition, etc. Accolades are absolutely are determinate to competition. They are both a flawed measurement of production.
Stats only measure offensive production anyways which is half of the on-court game. Defense is the other half, and blocks and steals do not mean a lot on the defensive end. Plus there is the mental aspect of the game, which is just as important as the on-court aspect.
These are the criteria I use...
Impact to the game: LeBron is the most hyped about star ever and he helped popularize basketball more then Wade because he was one of greatest highschool athletes of all time. I don't think it's close, but is it very important?
Positive impact to team: I'd call it a draw overall. Let's look at long term positive impact first. LeBron singlehandedly and instantly turned Cleveland into a winning franchise and the fifth-best market in the NBA, and the NBA is buisness after all. However, Wade won Miami it's first rings with the GOAT finals performance of all time and that cannot be overlooked or overwritten, despite the fact Pat Riley was just as vital in that run. In terms of short-term impact, LeBron barely contributes more to his team in a game-to-game basis than Wade.
Versatility: They're both as versatile as you can get on both ends of the floor for their respective sizes, so I'd call it a wash. They both needs to work on the jumpshot and form anywhere and maybe post game, probably the only flaw in their completeness.
Consistency and Domination: It's LeBron hands down, but Wade comes closer than most would like to think. LeBron is a far more imposing player simply due to his talent. He dominates the game in his prime better than anyone since Shaq, and is in the top five primes of all time. He's a triple-double machine and a 30-point scorer and the and very consistent. Wade on the the other hand, dominates a bit more quietly, but dominates nonetheless. One thing I notice about him is he plays usually relatively mediocre but has several explosion games where he wins them all by himself. That puts a dent in his consistency. Take a look at the 08-09 season Game Log, he had 20-25 point games with around 30-ish 35+ point games.
Mental game: LeBron is a very good leader in the NBA, but Wade is Wade. Mentally, we can't see what goes on in their heads, but we do know what happened in the '06 Finals.
Step-up-to-the-Occasion Performance: Even though both players step it up a notch in the playoffs (LeBron does so a bit more), the disparity between finals performance is menacing, even if you consider LeBron was facing a better defensive team.
So, they're tied 2-2-2. In conclusion, If I had to pick one to be in the HoF, I'd pick LeBron because he may have been the greatest high school basketball player of all time, and the HoF is all basketball, not just NBA. I would rank Wade higher on the all time lists though.
