Dwyane Wade shocked the basketball world by leaving the Miami Heat in 2016 and he opened up on that decision during an appearance on the OGs Show. Wade revealed to his former teammates Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem that he didn’t feel the team showed him enough respect.
“So with the Heat, I ain’t f*** with them at that time,” Wade said. “I didn’t like how they handled me and so I had to go… It’s certain things that I have to look at of how I’m being treated, how I’m being respected, and all these things and I just didn’t feel that was given back to me at that time in my career.
“I don’t care, give me the ‘ride off in the sunset’ contract,” Wade continued. “I deserve it motherf*****. That’s how I was feeling. I don’t care whatever y’all want to say about my production. I deserve it. So yes, I want it and I didn’t get it and so I left.
“Do I wish that happened? I wish that didn’t happen, yeah, of course,” Wade added. “Man, I would love to be one team. One team, one voice, one sound.”
Wade said his decision to leave turned out to be a blessing in some ways. He signed with the Chicago Bulls, his hometown team, that offseason and it was a special experience to suit up for them.
Wade also got to spend a lot of time with his agent Henry Thomas during his time in Chicago. Thomas died in 2018 and the Hall of Famer is glad he was able to be around him for that long before his passing.
Wade’s tenure with the Bulls would prove to be a short one, though, as he and the team agreed on a buyout in 2017. He was back on the market and had an opportunity to go back to the Heat, but decided against it and signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Now the Cleveland portion of it, alright, I still was in my feelings,” Wade stated. “It took me a little while to get out. I ain’t gonna lie to y’all I could have came back to Miami after Chicago but I was like, ‘Nah, I ain’t there yet.’
“I was hurt,” Wade said. “I think the thing what people don’t understand is we’re human, bro… I was heartbroken… I thought I did everything, I was the pillar and I thought at that time that I should have got rewarded for that… Why I end up leaving was I was hurt. I was hurt how they was handling me, how they treated me.”
It was reported back in 2016 that the Heat had initially offered Wade a two-year, $20 million deal. They then bumped it up to $40 million, but he found that unacceptable as well.
Wade was hurt that the team he had spent the first 13 seasons of his career with and had led to three championships wasn’t showing him the respect he felt he deserved. So, when the Bulls offered him a two-year, $47.5 million deal, he took it, perhaps a bit out of spite.
They say time heals all wounds and that was the case here too, as Wade was back in Miami in 2018. The Cavaliers traded him to the Heat in February at the trade deadline and he would spend the last year and a half of his career with the franchise. He ended up with averages of 22.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game in his 14-and-a-half seasons with the Heat.
It’s all good now between Wade and the team. The 42-year-old stated that just like married couples might have bad years, 2016 was a bad one for them but all is forgiven now.
The relationship is so good now, that the Heat honored Wade with a statue, which they officially unveiled on Oct. 27. He is the first to get that honor from the team, and rightfully so, as he is their greatest player.
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