Dwyane Wade Using Acquisition of LeBron James to Prove He's the Brighter Star

When LeBron James elected to join tandem with Dwyane Wade and Chis Bosh, it was perceived that they would be his sidekicks. Well the trio is seven games into the season and apparently Wade hasn’t gone over the memo.

This season is supposed to be about LeBron James and him finally leading a team to an NBA title. It’s been the one constant from the media over the past three years, and the media made sure NBA fans across the globe knew their stance. Of course, any fan with any kind of intelligence knows to hold the opinions of the media with the same accord as they would a grain of salt.

Since Dwyane Wade has entered the NBA, he and nearly every other player not named Kobe Bryant has had to live in the shadow of James. For much of the past five or six seasons, for some odd reason, it’s been taboo to view anyone a better player than James. The one exception being Kobe Bryant, and even he had often found himself buried beneath the mountain of a James’ popularity.

Being Under-appreciated Partly Wade’s Fault

In a lot of ways, Dwyane Wade has been handicapped by his own personality. Out of all the scoring champs over the past two decades, he’s easily identified as the only one who hasn’t tooted his own horn about his abilities and accomplishments. His reserved demeanor doesn’t make him media friendly because you can almost predict his politically correct sentiments when asking him a question.

The problem isn’t that he almost always says the appropriate thing. The problem lies in when he says it, you are almost a 100 percent certain he means it. After all, unlike James, Kobe or many other greats before him, Wade has never given us a reason to believe different.

So even with him accomplishing more on a relevance standpoint, while maintaining similar or better stats. Wade has never had the luxury of being considered better than James, let alone the best player in the game.

Well, there is that time where Pat Riley said he was the best in his opinion. But that didn’t count and was quickly written off as a Riley supporting his guy. Funny thing is, Riley has never been associated with throwing around empty sentiments. He never called Alonzo Mourning the best center in the game. Nor did he refer to Tim Hardaway as the best point guard when he was guiding the Heat to all those division crowns.

Riley’s always displayed a healthy respect for the NBA brand. Too bad folks pick and choose when to take his words at face value.

Maybe if Wade would go around beating his chest about being the best, someone besides his supporters would actually buy into the thought of it at least being a possibility. But he doesn’t and because of it, he gets a less than appropriate billing from liars and homers.

Wade No Longer Handicapped

With their stats being basically identical from a PER 36 standpoint, the nod has often gone to James these past few seasons as who’s the better player because of his team’s final record. Yet somehow this same rule didn’t apply for Wade when his clubs finished with a better overall record than those of James.

Wade had always had his success tied to that of Shaquille O’Neal being a teammate. It didn’t matter that O’Neal had never shot above 60 percent or that he had never reached an NBA Finals in his second season with a team until he joined forces with Wade.

People didn’t care that as a rookie Wade had carried a Heat team that had previously won 25 games the season prior to his arrival, to a second-round, six-game series versus the best team in the league that season. It also didn’t matter that the No. 1 draft pick James had failed to reach the playoffs that season with an arguably more talented club.

Only thing that mattered was James had the more appealing story. Rarely was play and meaningful results accounted for.

Like so often in sports, the Media had already selected who was the better player before they ever played a single possession in the NBA. And as far as they were concerned, nothing would ever change that.

It’s arguable that no player has had their legacy devalued more because of the presence of James than Dwyane Wade. But that all could be changing because the two are now teammates, they will be under the same spot light at the very same time.

For the first time in his career, Wade won’t be handicapped by media bias based on team standings. Now the media can’t use teammates to propel James or devalue Wade based on the perception of their teammates abilities.

For the first time Wade is on equal footing. And the Media is doing everything possible to lead you to believe differently.

Wade Leading the Way Early

After seven games into the season Wade is leading LeBron in all but two statistical categories, those being minutes per game and assist. This while sitting out all but three minutes of the Heat’s preseason and by his own account, at least 20 practices with his newly formed team.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Still think James is better? Well, you should know that Wade is doing all this while playing two less minutes per game. In a league where so much is based on statistical achievements, the fact that this is going unmentioned is a perfect example of media biases.

With the Heat struggling to find its offensive identity, Wade has been the one creating and shouldering the load in their half court settings until the team’s defense creates the gaps needed to attain their victories.  

In the seven games played, Wade has led them in first-half scoring in all but the Boston game. He’s scored 12 or more in the first half all but the Boston game, where he struggled to score his seven points, just three back of James.

But you wouldn’t know that unless you did the research yourself. The media isn’t about to start leading you down a path of reality, not when they’ve worked so hard to create a false-truth.

Well, in the words of rapper Lil Wayne: “Women lie, men lie, but the numbers don’t lie.”

Have a look for yourself.

• MPG: 33.1 (Wade)  – 35.1 (James) 
• FG%: 48.7 (Wade) – 47.1 (James) 
• FT%: 77.8 (Wade)  – 77.4 (James) 
• 3PT%: 38.1 (Wade)  – 34.8 (James) 
• PPG: 24.1 (Wade) – 20.7 (James) 
• RPG: 6.4 (Wade)  – 4.7 (James) 
• SPG: 1.7 (Wade)  – 1.7 (James) 
• BPG: 1.1 (Wade)  – 0.7 (James)
• APG: 3.7 (Wade)  – 7.9 (James)
• TOPG: 3.6 (Wade)  – 4.7 (James)

Nothing Has Ever Suggested James Is the Better Player

Now that you know what is going on between the two, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Wade is out-playing James. He leads James in several career categories even though James has a near three minute per game advantage.

So being that James averages 40.3 minutes per game and Wade 37.6 per game, it’s more accurate to gage them on their PER 36 numbers. In doing so, one can truly see the production rate of the two over an equal time frame.

• FG%: 48.7 (Wade) – 47.5 (James) 
• FT%: 77.1 (Wade)  – 74.3 (James) 
• 3P%: 29.1 (Wade)  – 32.8 (James) 
• PPG: 24.1 (Wade) – 24.8 (James) 
• RPG: 4.7 (Wade)  – 6.3 (James) 
• SPG: 1.8 (Wade)  – 1.6 (James) 
• BPG: 0.9 (Wade)  – 0.8 (James) 
• APG: 6.3 (Wade)  – 6.2 (James) 
• TOPG: 3.6 (Wade)  – 3.0 (James) 

Out of the 10 statistical categories often associated with All-Star and MVP-caliber players, Wade is ahead of James in five of them. That’s half, which would at least lend way to the notion that they are equals from a statistical advantage.

It also would give way to the perception that Wade is the more skilled player because he doesn’t have the stature and physical attributes as that of the monstrous James.

But that would require folks to show intelligence and display reason, none of which can be associated with the way the Media chooses to relay information, especially things that are factual.

It also doesn’t help that today’s brand of fan is as immature and uneducated as any other in the history of modern day sports. The fact that folks actually go to the extremes of creating lies to try and prove something that can never be anything more than an opinion should be rather disturbing to everyone that isn’t doing it.

But so is the sad state of the NBA. And because of it, players like Wade will continue to not receive the full value or credit they deserve. It’s somewhat saddening that the legacy he’s worked so hard at establishing is being blatantly ignored and in some cases discredited.

At least now he has the spotlight of LeBron James to further prove just which star shines brighter.