How Dwyane Wade almost never became a Heat player
By Ehsan Kassim
Over the past few weeks we have heard crap like this, “the Miami Heat are a better team without Wade.” People on Twitter even attempted to make this hash-tag trending, #WithoutWade.
I found this to be really interesting as I was reading it. I found 4 mock drafts and none of them had Dwyane Wade in the top 5 or going to Miami. Here is a look at what the Heat picked in each mock draft and where Dwyane Wade ended up:
5 C Chris Kaman C. Michigan 7’0″ 25521 The Heat will be more than happy to finally get a real center, which they haven’t had since Alonzo Mourning had his kidney problems. T.J. Ford is another possible pick here, but it’s a lot easier to find a cheap point guard in free agency than it is to find a center.
9 SG Dwyane Wade Marquette 6’4″ 20021 Consider this one a placeholder. If Kaman and Lampe are both gone by the time the Knicks pick, one has to think they’ll try to deal this pick to a team that fancies Wade in return for some frontcourt help. They’re too scarred from the Frederic Weis disaster to take a chance on Russian giant Pavel Podkolzin.
Flash forward 9 years and the Heat found a center for a short while in Shaq and Wade delivered a championship to Miami.
| 5. Heat |
| SELECTION | |
| Maciej Lampe | C | 7-0 | Poland Why? The Heat are also looking to move their pick. Like Toronto, they aren’t convinced there’s anyone left on the board who gets them any closer to the playoffs this year. That’s why they’re flirting with Lampe at No. 5. He’s probably the player with the most upside after the first four guys are off the board. If it isn’t Lampe, KU’s Kirk Hinrich or Marquette’s Dwyane Wade may be the guy. |
| 7. Bulls | SELECTION |
| Dwyane Wade | SG | 6-4 | Marquette Why? With Williams’ career likely over, the Bulls need a guard who can also help out at the point. As much as they like Pietrus, Wade’s versatility makes him the choice. |
| 5. | Miami | Kirk Hinrich 6-4 190 PG Kansas Sr. |
| 7. | Chicago | Dwyane Wade 6-5 212 SG Marquette Jr. |
Real GM:
"5. Miami ? Maciej Lampe, F, Poland"
"7. Chicago ? Dwyane Wade, G, Marquette"
Three of the four mock drafts I found had Wade going to the Bulls. The other had him going to the Knicks as potential trade bait. Interesting how the Heat interest was smoke screened. Here is also how the Magic thought they had a chance to acquire Dwyane Wade. This is Doc Rivers on how it almost went down:
"“Dwyane came in to work out with us when I was coaching the Magic and he really shouldn’t have. I think we were the 15th pick or the 14th pick. He had no business coming. He just came because of the Marquette connection.“We had a workout. We had Keith Bogans and a couple of other guys. He dominated that workout more than I have seen any player dominate a workout to a point where we were scrambling trying to make a trade to get him in the draft and move up. We felt a lot of people didn’t know it.“We had a deal with the Miami Heat if their guy didn’t come up the pick was ours.“Well when the pick came to Miami . . . and Dwyane Wade, we thought that we had him because we didn’t know that Miami liked him and then they called us right before they were about to pick and they said, ‘We’re sorry. We have our guy.’And they picked Dwyane Wade.” Source: Orlando Sentinel"
Heat fans today that are calling for the Heat to trade Wade or proclaiming the Heat better #WithoutWade, remember, the Heat nearly never had Wade. He could have just as easily slipped by the Heat and brought the cities of Chicago or Orlando championships as well. Remember, if it were not for him, Chris Bosh and Lebron James are not currently in Miami.
Morale of this post, please appreciate the player that brought the city its first NBA championship. Yes, Lebron James in all likelihood is the better player, but Miami is “Wade” County for a reason!