Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 9:00 am  |  97 responses

Dwyane Wade: LeBron James’ Defender

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

They’ve yet to play a single game together, but already, D-Wade is handing out plenty of assists to LeBron James.

Dwyane had a chat with the Associated Press yesterday, and spent much of it defending James’s disappointing and bewildering performance against the Celtics in the Playoffs.

Flash isn’t buying any of Dan Gilbert’s looniness about LeBron having quit on his team:

Wade said he watched every game in Cleveland’s second-round series against Boston, the team that eliminated the Heat in the opening round of the postseason. The Celtics used a similar defensive scheme against James as they did against Wade to open the playoffs, throwing a slew of challenges in the way of both.

“LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, guys like that understand what Boston’s defense was about,” Wade said. “Their defense was built on not letting one player beat them. You either settle for the outside shot or you pass to your teammates. LeBron had one bad game in the playoffs. Other than that, he did what he could do with the defense all watching him.”

“I don’t see where you can get where he quit,” Wade said. “He just had one bad game. It happens. Kobe had a bad game in the finals. They won. It didn’t matter. LeBron’s teammates didn’t help him out that game and it made the way he played even worse. But he’s not a quitter. He didn’t quit.”

Dwyane is clearly the only person in the LBJ camp who knows anything about spinning good PR. James ought to think about hiring him to help turn the tide of public opinion on him.

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  • The Philosopher

    The King’s calvary. Dwyane Wade.

  • jpbl1976

    Hilarious that Wade referred to himself in the third person. He’s clearly learning something from ‘Bron as well.

  • http://www.threadsandkicks.com.au Eduardo

    C’Mon what did you expect Wade to say? That statement might as well have come from Maverick Carter.

  • http://www.slamonline.com James the Balla

    Hey, someone from SLAM, can we get a write up on Scottie Reynolds? He went un-drafted and should something to watch if he makes it onto the Suns roster!!

  • http://www.slamonline.com James the Balla

    be something to watch***

  • Hill

    that’s what “brother” means.James just done nothing wrong

  • neaorin

    I’ve seen LeBron struggle in the playoffs plenty. Games 2 and 5 were NOT that.

  • rayray

    Lebron quit on Cleveland – but hey im just saying.

  • http://kamndestiny@yahoo.com swisha sweet

    cleveland sucked before n after lebron. a city full of cry babys n haters.. get off lebrons nuts, in go find a player dat wants to play in your rotten town,on dat rotten roster…. ill never visit cleveland a day n my life,cause i know what u people r made of … he dont owe yall shit…..gave ya da best 7 years youll ever have, face it u want b in the playoffs for a long time…and your football team stinks even more. lebron needed to seperate his self from a bunch of hillbilly loosers. welcome to da Florida Lebron

  • JoeMaMa

    Actually, LeBron’s biggest defender will be Nike. They’ll make a few commercials, put out some shoes and shirts, and the Americian riff raff will lap it up as usual. Don’t doubt the idiocy of the public when it comes to funny 30 second spots and well placed swooshes.
    Oh, and those who continue to shake their heads at this circus will be branded ‘haters’. I don’t really care about LeBron’s decision, but the subsequent PR work is going to assault our intelligence and turn my stomach.

  • Tommy Patron

    Excellent. I hope LeBroad continues to not quit in all future playoff appearances. I live in Chicago.

  • underdog

    This upcoming season will be packed with hilarious comments and plenty of whineing. I’m expecting Chris Bosh to be the first unsatisfied player, somewhere around the 5th game of the reg. season.

  • Sparty’s Law

    He’s a quitter.

  • rikson

    “Don’t doubt the idiocy of the public when it comes to funny 30 second spots and well placed swooshes.” -> LOL… great stuff!

  • Javy

    Look Wade, now that I am going to ride on your back, please tell them to stop calling me names. I don’t like them. They’re saying I quit….Please Wade I don’t like them!….tell them to stop!!….Bosh are you there?…come quick!!

  • kundai

    he isnt a quitter i just beleive he was overall frustrated with the situation happening again and agian and nobody could help him like kobe or wade in 06.

  • http://www.slamonline.com jumpman3224

    I don’t like to throw the Q word around, but saying LBJ’s teammates didn’t help him out? C’Mon. He was standing, not moving at all, in no-man’s land not looking to even be a factor for most of the game and during huddles simply looked as though he doesn’t care. Most Cavs fans I know feel that he did all of this because he knew he was going to leave and wanted the whole “Cleveland can’t win” angle used. Although, no one was saying that before all this went down.

  • Kundai

    If you gave a kobe bryant that team that they have in cleveland he would complain and say he wanted to leave like he did with the lakers it was a bad situation in cleveland. i am a lebron fan and i still think he should have gone to the bulls over the heat just because its better for the league and at least helps his legacy. But i think he was ctually going to stay in cleveland until bosh left for miami.

  • Exile

    Good try Wade… Awesome teammate.

  • Diesel

    I’m liking Wade less and less.

  • http://www.slamonline.com J

    Ok..

  • Kundai

    everyone is a hater how can you liek wade less for this

  • LA Huey

    Hating on Wade? The guy is percieved to have convinced an All-Star and a superstar to join his team and he’s sticking up for his teammate that has recently become more polarizing. This guy is a LEADER.

  • http://www.slamonline.com J

    Ok. again.

  • bill breedley

    weak. dwade will experience first hand how lepippen quits in the playoffs.

  • http://www.slamonline.com jumpman3224

    Nothing but love for DWADE though.

  • Chris

    I think James quit. But, I think he saw the inevitable. His team wasn’t playing… they missed wide open shot after wide open shot, which he set up for them.

    They get paid millions of dollars a year to hit open shots and they couldn’t.

    Kobe may have had a bad shooting performance, but Derek Fisher, Ron Artest, and Pau Gasol all stepped up. Not one person on the Cavs did that. I’d be pissed too. If you can’t get past the Celtics, you’re thinking we can’t get past Orlando or LA.

    Now it turns out the Celtics put on one heck of a performance and stepped up their games in the play-offs, but I never, nor do I think LBJ would have, believed that the Celtics would get past the Magic.

    LBJ did everything for Cleveland for 7 years. They put no one around him that could hit open shots when the pressure was on… Yeah, I’d be pissed too.

  • ClydeSays

    I wouldn’t say quit. He seemed … I dunno… distracted is the word that pops in my head. Like be got a new job and was thinking about that one instead of the one he actually had. I think that’s a typical human response, unfortunately for Cleveland…

  • Diesel

    Kundai – if you think Wade is doing this out of the kindness of his heart because “he’s a good person” than you’re just flat out gullible. He’s trying to repair the image of his and the Heat’s business, which Lebron is now a part of. It’s all about the $.

  • hangtime Hec

    Nice story Wade, but he still quit. There is a difference between, struggling against a elite defense and all around throwing the towel.

  • http://theurbangriot.com The Nupe

    Quit is a strong word and only LBJ knows if he really quit or not, the rest is speculation. I don’t think he quit – he wanted a ring too much to do that, however I think he was highly frustrated and lost belief in his team and accepted failure before it happened. I don’t think he actively in his mind decided not to perform, but he was psyched out. Maybe his ‘distraction’ was due to Delonte, maybe it was the pressure, maybe it was seeing how little support he had, maybe it was… I really don’t know, but to accuse him of actively quitting is going to far IMHO.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/ niQ

    Yes, I believe he did refer to himself as third person…

  • http://www.slamonline.com Eboy

    If there was EVER another player that had a triple double in an in elimination game in NBA history (which he was accused of quitting in), I’d like one of you nitwits to point it out right here. I’ll start with one (where the player couldn’t have sniffed Lebron’s a*s or his statline) where the superstar player quit and posted weaker numbers although he’s supposed to be the real King: Kobe Bryant, Game 6, 2008 Finals. Team lost by 39. Should I embarrass him with the stats or let you tw*ts look it up yourselves? As that dopey bi*ch The Seed would say about his boyfriend backdoor activities, BOOK THAT!

  • Noel

    Lol great picture there. It’s like Lebron is Bush, Wade is Cheney and Bosh is Rice

  • Kundai

    so just stop hating on the best player in the league

  • JTaylor21

    Yeah men its like kobetards play dumb forgeting that the guy has quit on his team before. 06 vs PHX in a GM 7 and when his team lost by 39 in an elimination game in the NBA finals. getting beat by the largest margin in finals history, damn. but now all of a sudden becuase his won 2 rings where he was carried to the 2nd by his team and gasol, his better than bron and deserves to be in MJ/Magic/Kareem talk. Bullsh*t.

  • Kundai

    He has always had the right cast. Jordan had it, magic had it, bird had it, now taht lebron has it people want to say well he has good teammates so it doesnt count. Like come on give him a break the difference is that people think lebron cares about being compared to jordan and what nto. I think he cares more about team, rings, money. Lebron has drive but portrays it by no always taking teh last shot but knowing when to pass. Something that kobe still hasnt grasped.

  • RyandC

    jordan had it, magic had it, bird had it. now lebron has it but he had to bail on his city to get it

  • Kundai

    Dont you understand that he’s from akron no cleveland and cleveland who turned down the amar’e deal was never serious about building. I dont think he made the best decision by going to miami i think he should have gone to chicago. but he wants that feeling that his teammates can lift him up when he doesnt perform. I think he was more mad at his teammates that game 5 game than anything else. and a lil bit delonte mashing his mom

  • Fat Lever

    D’Angelo Barksdale was wrong. “The king stay the king”. Nope.

  • http://thephotoriot.com davidR

    fat lever, the king stay the king. but everyone know the queen has all the moves. and the queen aint no ibtch

  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton

    Eboy, are you suggesting that LeBron didn’t quit in game 6 cause of good stats? I hope you’re not, considering he was passive throughout the game, lethargic in the 4th quarter, threw it away to Anderson effin Varejao on multiple possessions, and generally decided to stand in a corner and let his team out to dry. Combine that with an obvious quit in game 5 and he’s a quitter, no doubt about it.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Yeah, he kinda quit.
    But, as Myles has pointed out to y’all, so did Jordan.
    And Kobe.
    And Wade.
    And damn near everybody.

  • Kundai

    thank you allenp people act as though he is the only one. wade last season looked like he was gonna move to costa rica and ditch the heats it moreof a frustrated deminor

  • http://slamonline.com Kap

    I hate when people uses this guys stat line to make excuses for him. Its like they refuse to believe what they see and instead you the stat line to make an assumption.

  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton

    True, but wasn’t he supposed to be different? And his team was nowhere as sh*tty as Wade’s, they were the perennial favorites to beat the Celtics and had made moves to beat the Magic too. Douche just needed an excuse to bolt.

  • kundai

    you guys would bolt to if you were in his shoes and you can’t like you guys are probably kevein durant or kobe fans and you know those two would dip from cleveland in a second

  • http://www.slamonline.com jumpman3224

    I’m sorry, but I’m so sick of the whole ‘Kobe Quit in 2006′ thing. Phil Jackson has said since that the game plan was to go inside to the bigs and Kobe followed. In the second half he was in foul trouble (some of which he picked up making aggressive moves to the basket). If he quit, why weren’t any of his teammates calling him out? They had before for various things hadnt they? He recognized that he needed to get others going as him doing it all had them down 15 in the first half. Here is an article from the LA times that says the whole theory is a fairytale that is unsupported: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-heisler-lakers-20100519,0,1151031,full.column

  • http://theurbangriot.com The Nupe

    Why is it that whenever there is an article about LeBron, people have to bring up Kobe, MJ or whomever else? This article is just about LBJ quitting (or not) and has nothig to do with the fact that anybody else has ever quit. It doesn’t make it more or less ‘right’ or ‘forgiveable’ or ‘justifiable’ to quit. LBJ either quit on his team or he didn’t and that has nothing to do with anybody else. If the argument is every player quits from time to time, then this really isn’t much of a story because LBJ did what everybody else has done (or not).

  • Izzo

    By all means, let’s never credit any defense ever. I guess the reason anyone fails to make big plays, or just doesn’t score at every opportunity is something of their own choosing.

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