Co-existing Superstars

Dwayne Wade and LeBron James are two alpha dogs who had amazing careers before they joined forces in Miami. James was busy putting up ridiculous numbers at Cleveland and Wade was doing the same thing in Miami. Wade in 2006, was considered the best player in the league after winning his first NBA championship. Since then Wade has always been considered a top five to top ten player in the league.

I think it is pretty amazing for these two superstars to co-exist and make a run like the Heat are doing right now. The Heat have one the last two NBA championships and are looking to make it a three peat. Being able to co-exist is a combination of your game and your personalities. LeBron has always been a team player since he has been in the league and I've noticed the advice that he gives to younger players is be the best teammate that you can be. I feel like Wade deserves the most credit because he had to swallow his pride and let LeBron be the main guy on the team for the Heat to succeed. Dwayne Wade would be the number one option on about 26 out of the 30 teams in the league, that is how good he is.

I look at last year at how Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard could no co-exist at all. They are also two superstars who joined forces, but they could not get along. Kobe is not the type of player who is going to let another player share the spotlight with him and Dwight is too soft to realize Kobe is not going to baby him. Dwight Howard is not in Houston so we can see how far that got. Another example is Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire co-existing in New York a couple of years ago. Along with Kobe, Carmelo does not want to share the spotlight let alone let his scoring average go down because of another player. Now it has gotten to Amare coming of the bench and not even close to the player he used to be.

"My view as James and Wade get ready to defend the Pacers on February 2, 2013"
(My image Dominique Neely)

It comes down to wanting to win championships and Dwayne Wade has sacrificed his numbers for 2 more championships so far. Wade has also helped out LeBron in a big way that people do not realize. LeBron used to be dancing and goofing around on the sidelines all of the time and you do not see that anymore. It is all about business now and LeBron has become more mature.