Dwyane Wade entered the NBA as a part of the iconic 2003 NBA draft class. Wade was drafted using the fifth overall pick by the Miami Heat, and that decision turned the fortunes around for both the Heat and Wade.
It was clear from the start that Wade was here to stay in the NBA. He proved his worth to the entire league by leading the Miami Heat to their first NBA Championship in 2006. On top of that, Wade was just in his third season at that point and was outright the best player on the Heat.
Following that amazing championship run, Wade had to wait for more than half a decade to win his next ring in 2012. At the time, D-Wade was a second option due to the franchise forming a Big 3 by welcoming LeBron James and Chris Bosh to the team.
During the Big 3 era, the Heat won two rings and had some great moments. But in order to work a team that had three All-Star players on the roster, some sacrifices had to be made.
Each player made some financial sacrifices to play together. But were those sacrifices worth it? Well, at the time, the Big 3 might have thought that. However, Wade recently talked about regretting giving up around $20 million.
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“It was tough to give up, I think I gave up $17 or $20 million. Now, as someone who’s on the other side of it, I didn’t have to give that money up. I could have pushed the envelope a little bit more. I could have made them spread a little bit of that bread. There was a lot of things that at the time, as a player, you really didn’t know. You just know that this is what they said needs to be done, and this is what we want to do. Let’s get it done, and so we all had to sacrifice financially.”
Giving such a big amount of money is never easy, no matter what the reward is on the other side.
Fortunately the Heat won two rings after the financial sacrifice made by the players. But as D-Wade explained, after owning a team, he understands the side of the business better and believes he could have earned more money during his playing career.
