Miami Heat: Was Dwyane Wade better than Kobe Bryant in their primes?

In an interview with Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, Miami Heat president Pat Riley stated that Dwyane Wade was better than Kobe Bryant for a stretch.

Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck dropped a piece of must-read proportions for both Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks fans earlier this week. At its core, The Ballad Of Dirk And Dwyane explores the relationship and rivalry between Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki, but along the way an interview with Pat Riley reveals that Riley believes that at his prime, Wade was better than Kobe Bryant.

"For about a three-year span Wade was, in Riley’s view, “the best player in the world.”“Dwyane was better than Kobe at that time,” Riley says. “He had a better year by having the impact on winning—in the Finals, in the biggest moments, on the biggest stage. And you get that moniker.”"

In 2006, Dwyane Wade was in his third year while Kobe Bryant was in his 10th. That 2005-06 season, with Shaquille O’Neal alongside him, Wade and the Miami Heat beat the Mavs in the Finals, and Wade was named Finals MVP. While Bryant would go on to win two Finals MVPs, to that point it was an award he had not yet won.

It’s an intriguing period of time for Riley to pick out, as around that time Bryant was reaching the peak of his own powers. Kobe averaged a staggering 35.4 points per game in 2005-06 and 31.7 points per game over the three years Riley referenced, while in 2005-06 Wade averaged 27.2 points per game and averaged 26,5 points over the three-year span.

In fact, it was after that three-year span ended that perhaps Wade could best lay claim to being better than Kobe when he averaged 30.2 points per game to Kobe’s 26.8 points per game in 2008-09.

Of course, by then the Lakers were back on top of the NBA, winning the championship and beating the Orlando Magic in the Finals, while the Miami Heat went 43-39 and were first round fodder for the Atlanta Hawks.

Also by that point, LeBron James had ascended to the pinnacle of the NBA, and it was hard to argue anybody over him as best player.

One thing is certain, whichever player you want to pick for their overall body of work, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade’s primes didn’t quite line up, and at the point at which the player was better than the other, theirs was the inferior team.