How Good Was Prime Dwyane Wade?

[Music] you know it's crazy to think that kids under the age of 16 maybe 17 only remember dwayne wade for being a pretty decent player before they could even remember dwayne way was tearing it up in the nba they weren't around to see the flash they weren't around to see the real dwayne wait so who was the real d wade what was he all about well welcome to nba zone and in today's video we're going to take a look back and give a retrospective on the prime of dwayne wade's career all to answer the question how good was prime dwayne wait before we do that though show some love for us here at nba zone and i'll return to youtube by dropping a like on this video and make sure you subscribe because we're bringing back some of the best nba related content on youtube now with that out of the way let's get into the video dwayne wade started his high school career playing for harold l richards high school in oakland illinois he wouldn't excel as a basketball player right away though in fact wade was considered to be a better football player than he was a basketball player that would all change when he grew four inches before his junior year improving as a player along with the crazy growth spurt duane would emerge as the leader of his team and would average 20.7 points and 7.6 rebounds this would give him his initial push as a future shining star and get him some attention scouts were able to see that the talent was there and as you can see in these highlights wade was showcasing the same skill set in high school that he was in the nba so talent wasn't an issue but academics were and even though wade would average 27 points and 11 rebounds his senior year he would only receive offers from marquette illinois state and depaul dwayne wade would commit to marquette university but once again academics would come back to bite him in his freshman year he would have to sit out his entire freshman year of college due to academic ineligibility through tutoring and a little bit of effort wade was able to return to the court in his sophomore season and he would showcase the talent that all the scouts had seen in high school he would lead marquette in scoring with 17 points per game and led the conference usa in steals per game and two point field goals the year was 2002 and d-wade had just carried marquette to a 26-7 record giving them their best record since the 1994 season as good of a showing as his sophomore year was wade wouldn't go pro instead he would return to marquette for his junior season and man would it be a big one he would lead the team in scoring lead them to a 27-6 record a conference title and a final four appearance his elite performance his junior season would obviously catch the attention of nba personnel and d wade would declare for the 2003 nba draft this is when the nba world be rocked by the way of waves [Music] the 2003 nba draft class is widely considered to be the greatest draft class in the history of the nba it produced talent like lebron james carmelo anthony chris bosh and darko milicic okay maybe not darko but my point is that most of the hype going into the draft was surrounding the chosen one in lebron james the talent of the others in this class was not being overlooked by any means but with everyone's eyes on the brawn guys like dwyane wade weren't what people were super excited about that would change very fast wade would be selected by the miami heat with the fifth pick in that 2003 draft and he would put the world on notice immediately he would average 16 points four and a half assists and four rebounds on 43 shooting his rookie year not only that but he would lead the heat to the playoffs that year as well even hitting this game winner in the opening series against the new orleans hornets he would even help push them past the first round leading miami in scoring and assists just as a rookie they would eventually be outed by an indiana pacers super team wielding talent such as reggie miller stephen jackson and jermaine o'neill but dwyane wade was far from done wade was able to solidify himself as a superstar in only his second year in the nba and add in the fact that the heat acquired shaquille o'neal in a trade for the 2005 season the heat were destined to be great and great they were they would improve their previous season's record by 17 wins tallying a 59-23 record during the regular season not only that but wade would boost his scoring average from 16 points per game to 24 points per game along with 5 rebounds and nearly 7 assists per game this would all easily culminate into a playoff appearance and wade in the heat would put on a show during their first round matchup of the 2005 playoffs the heat would play the new jersey nets now this nets team may have been the eighth seed at the time but they were absolutely no slouches they had a lineup that included jason kidd vince carter and richard jefferson that didn't matter though as wade would make easy work of them while absolutely dominating that series they would sweep that nets team and move on to the second round to play the wizards in that second round series wade would dominate even more averaging 31 points seven rebounds and eight assists during that series this would lead them to the eastern conference finals where even while playing against the eventual nba champion detroit pistons even while playing with sinusitis the flu and a knee strain dwayne wade would drop 42 points in game 2 and 36 points in game 3. keep in mind he was doing all this in just his second year in the league unfortunately he would go down with a strain in his ribs and it would sideline him for game six and limit him in game seven the heat would end up losing that series and the pistons went on to win the championship that was all fine and dandy though because dwayne wade was coming back next year to finish what he couldn't the year before shoots no he couldn't get it off during the 2005-2006 regular season wade would do his thing averaging 27.2 points 6.7 assists and 5.7 rebounds a game the regular season wasn't dwyane wade's top priority though it was all about the playoffs and in those playoffs is when d wade would once again play through immense illness and pain much like he did the year before during the first round wade played against the bulls with a severely bruised hip then in a series against the pistons he would play through flu-like symptoms none of this would stop the flash though and dwayne wade shaquille o'neal and the miami heat were on their way to the nba finals during the 2006 nba finals versus the dallas mavericks the heat would quickly go down o2 in the series then dwayne way would absolutely turn it up and the heat would take the next four games straight with wade scoring 42 points in game three 36 points in game four 43 points in game 5 and 36 points in game 6. dwyane wade in the miami heat had won the nba championship it only took wade three years into his nba career to do so and it looked as if many more rings were going to be coming to dwayne wade in the years to come unfortunately he wouldn't get another shot for a while during a stretch from 2006 to 2008 wade would struggle a bit with injuries and he wouldn't experience much success wade would still play well but he wouldn't play often then in the 2008 2009 season dwayne wade would average a league leading 30.2 points per game giving him the title of scoring champion he wouldn't experience any real playoff success though that is until the king would arrive from 2010 to 2014 the miami heat were in what was called the big three era a period of time when two superstars and lebron james and chris bosh came to miami to play alongside fellow superstar dwyane wade this would obviously be a successful period for the heat wade would take a slight backseat to pique lebron james but that was expected as a team though they were quite successful they would make four straight nba finals winning two of them going back to back in 2012 and 2013. this would give dwayne wade his third nba title basically solidifying himself as a future hall of famer if he wasn't already the 2014 finals lost to the spurs would be detrimental to the miami heat franchise though as lebron james would return home back to the cleveland cavaliers the team's success would dip and wade's numbers would start to decline even though he would rack up three more all-star appearances this was basically the end of dwayne wade's career he would take himself back home as well attempting to go play with the chicago bulls though the team seemed that it would be solid on paper it was a flop then he would try to team back up with lebron in cleveland and that was the ultimate flop probably a time that dwayne wade would love all of us to forget after a year and a half of confusion though wade would return back to his nba home in miami he would finish out the 2018 season there and come the 2019 season he would announce that it would be his last that would start the farewell tour for dwayne wade after a magical last year in the league including his final game in miami where he scored 30 points dwayne wade would retire from the nba dwayne wade is no doubt a future hall of famer over his career he racked up accolades such as 13-time all-star 2009 scoring champion eight-time all-nba selection three-time all-defense selection three-time nba champion and one-time finals mvp a truly great career and a truly legendary player so that's going to do it for today's video what are your opinions of dwyane wade let us know in the comments section below also if you enjoyed this video then drop a like and make sure you subscribe for more nba content just like this anyways i'll see you next time thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: NBA Zone

Views: 143,556

Rating: 4.9022427 out of 5

Keywords: nba, nba today, dwyane wade, dwyane wade highlights, dwyane wade dunk on varejao, dwyane wade last game, dwyane wade final game, prime dwyane wade, how good was prime dwyane wade?, dwyane wade documentary, dwyane wade dunk, dwyane wade interview, dwyane wade game winner, nba moments, dwyane wade and lebron james, lebron james, wade and lebron, dwyane wade retire, dwyane wade tribute, dwyane wade nba, miami heat, watch nba, nba zone

Id: 8Xm745Vp-e4

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 21 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/jdl03]

Man that red jersey looks so crisp on him. Nobody will ever wear it better.

[u/freshleebaked]

Thought anyone on this sub who only got to see Wade on the tail end of his career might be interested in educating themselves on Wade before Father Time took his knees.

BTW 100% going to be a Tyler Herro version of this down the line boy's special.

[u/[deleted]]

3️⃣🔥🔥🔥🏆🏆🏆