Before LeBron James and Chris Bosh appeared on the scene, it was Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal who ran the Miami Heat. From 2004-2008, the two dominated the NBA at an amazing level and were able to capture a Championship together in 2006.
In a recent interview (to promote his new book), Wade looked back on his run with ‘the Diesel,’ telling Insider what the whole experience was like for him:
“Big Fella didn’t come to South Beach just for the weather,” Wade wrote. “We all knew he wanted more hardware.
To have that guy tell me that I’m going to be one of the greatest,” said Wade. “To have that guy tell me that he’s going to turn me into one of the best shooting guards ever play the game and all these things, can you imagine my confidence? Can you imagine where the things he said to me took me?”
“Shaq was a star. Like, Shaq was not just a basketball player. You know what I’m saying? You got some guys who are known in a basketball space, and that’s it. Shaq is known all around the world. Every person that experienced Shaq when we played together, it was like a moment of, you know, you get the chance to check off the bucket list of watching, seeing one of the eight wonders in a world. He had that kind of effect on people.
I caught Shaq at the right time in his career … and I was able to benefit from a lot of it.”
It’s no secret that legends like LeBron, Kobe, and MJ have a certain level of impact on others around them.
That seemed to be the case for O’Neal, too. And while the big guy was nearing the end of his prime by the time he joined forces with Wade, they were able to win at least one Championship together.
To this day, you can tell both of them still have a profound degree of respect for each other.
