Dwyane Wade Told Goran Dragic to ‘Shoot the F*****g’ Ball’

Goran Dragic missed 11 of 14 shot attempts in the Miami Heat’s dramatic 100-97 win Sunday against the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.

Still, Dwyane Wade forcefully insisted for his struggling teammate to keep firing away.

After all, Wade shook off his own bricks earlier in the game and bounced in the winning shot.

Per the Palm Beach Post:

Goran Dragic is going through a mini-slump with his shot and it got so bad Sunday that he looked hesitant to try. He missed nine of his first 10 attempts, and his disinclination to keep firing was so clear that Dwyane Wade confronted him. […] “Shoot the (expletive) ball,” Wade recalled telling Dragic in the third quarter of the Heat‘s 100-97 win over Memphis.

 

He continued, “It’s simple. We want him to be aggressive. I know what he was seeing. You get out of rhythm sometimes, but I still want him to be aggressive. When I’m penetrating and I kick to him, be ready to shoot. He needs to hear that we want him to be aggressive and shoot the ball at the right times. When he’s off the ball, he becomes a scorer. It’s my job. We’ve got a great relationship, and I can talk to him that way.”

 

The play that set Wade off came with 6:50 left in the third. Wade drove and passed to an open Dragic in the right corner, but Dragic declined the 3-pointer and gave it to Luol Deng on the wing. […] “He turned it down and threw it to Lu and we got a bad shot,” Wade said. “I felt like he needed to shoot. Shoot the (expletive) ball. I told him that because we need him to do that. He’s a very good shooter. He needs to have that mentality.”