“Was extremely selfless” - Rich Paul showers appreciation on Dwyane Wade for allowing LeBron James to boss the Miami Heat

Typically, when a star player joins a team with an established leader, they are expected to assume a secondary role; just look at Kyrie Irving joining Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks or Damian Lillard teaming up with Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. However, LeBron James’ move to the Miami Heat presented a unique scenario. Despite Dwayne Wade’s proven success and established presence, he willingly allowed the four-time MVP to take the lead. This gesture of leadership transition continues to earn praise from James' agent, Rich Paul , even to this date.

Paul praises D-Wade for willingly taking a back seat

Prior to joining the Heat, James had experienced setbacks in the 2007 NBA Finals and 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. On the other hand, Dwayne Wade , despite not progressing past the first round in the previous four years, had lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy as the Finals MVP. Recognizing the need for harmony between two alpha stars to achieve further success, D-Wade made the selfless decision to take a back seat.

The 13-time All-Star’s stats reflected this transition. In the 2009-10 season, as the Heat’s centerpiece, he averaged 26.6 points and 6.5 assists per game. However, after James’ arrival in ‘10-11, Wade’s scoring dipped slightly to 25.5 points per game as he relinquished his role as the primary ball handler. Moreover, even after the Heat came up short against the Dallas Mavericks in the championship round, largely due to The King’s subpar performance, The Flash never stopped believing in him.

As a result, as James went on to win two regular-season MVP awards and two Finals MVP awards, Wade’s scoring average reduced to 22.1 points in 2011-12 and then 19.0 points in the subsequent season.

In essence, the retired guard allowed Bron to embrace the main role at the expense of his own prominence. Recognizing that Paul, while speaking on the Gil's Arena, commended Flash’s selfless team-oriented approach.

"D-Wade was extremely selfless because they had a friendship, there was automatically a respect for one another," Paul said . "It was Wade County going in, but LeBron trumps any of that because he’s such a big thing. D-Wade was selfless enough, he had enough awareness to understand this needs to be about us."

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Wade realized what had to be done

It’s no surprise that Wade considered the Heat to be ‘his team’ before LeBron arrived. However, he admitted that the loss to the Mavs in the NBA Finals made him realize he needed to take a step back and let the superstar forward lead Miami to championships, with him being the face of the team.

"Not knowing it at the time, but Dirk's greatness pushed me to be greater," Wade once confessed . "That's when I gave the reins to LeBron, and I took a step back."

Safe to say, while Bron became a legitimate GOAT candidate after finally getting over the hump in Miami, it was his teammate whose sacrifice pushed him to that level.

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