Shaquille O’Neal is most well-known for the 3-peat he won in Los Angeles, but he ended up winning another championship with the Miami Heat during the 2006 season. While he wasn’t as dominant as he was with the Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal made a perfectly fine No. 2 option for Dwyane Wade.
When speaking to Draymond Green, Gary Payton told a story about how he told Shaquille O’Neal to let Dwyane Wade take over. Payton reportedly had a conversation with O’Neal, where he stated that they had to let Wade be the “first here” referring to letting him be the offensive focus on the team.
I’m the oldest one on this team now… I start seeing Shaq be mad about we’re not getting him the ball. I just told Shaq, I said “Shaq listen here. Look what young fella did last year. You see how he took over stuff… You guys lost to these gunfighters. That’s why Pat came and put all of us together. He wanted a championship. We’re here now. We gotta stop this”
I said “Man we’re gonna make him be the first here. Period. You gotta do this for me”. I told Shaq “Do this for me. Just let him be the first here. Let him go and do him. If we get you on the block just get there and score”. When he agreed to it and bit in, D-Wade, I ain’t ever seen nobody perform like this ever… He guided us all the way to the championship.
Dwyane Wade has recently commented on this story from Gary Payton via his Instagram story, and lauded the vets for letting him “take the wheel”, and adding that they are “champs forever”.
When your vets are some of the greats and they move over and let you take the wheel… champs forever.
It is clear in retrospect that Shaquille O’Neal taking a step back helped Dwyane Wade become the best version of himself. That championship win was the Miami Heat’s first and that was the beginning of the Miami Heat becoming the respected franchise that we talk about today.
Shaquille O’Neal has previously stated that there were no problems between him and Dwyane Wade during their time together on the Heat. Shaquille O’Neal accepting his role was definitely part of that, and it’s clear that O’Neal’s unselfishness along with Wade’s play resulting from it were big reasons for the Heat being able to beat the Mavericks and hoist the trophy.
