I left Dwayne Wade out of The “Next Jordan” article I wrote for Bullz-Eye, mostly because I viewed him as a combo guard who plays a lot of point, while the rest of the guys on the list were swingmen. Also, there wasn’t a lot of “Next Jordan” discussion about Wade when he entered the draft – all of that talk revolved around a high school kid out of Ohio. But, this week, while LeBron James looked on from his living room, Wade was carrying the Heat to their first NBA title.
Wade had a phenomenal playoff run, averaging 28.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.7 assists, while shooting a stellar 50% from the field. He stepped up his game in the Finals, averaging 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists in the six games. But when you take away the first two games of the series, when Wade was still getting over the flu, he averaged 39.3 points in the last four games – all victories.
Those are certainly Jordan-esque numbers, but everyone should stop making the comparison. First of all, Wade is just a baby in terms of his career. Let’s see how he sustains this play and how he adjusts to the different defenses he’s going to see in the future, not to mention the eventual loss of Shaquille O’Neal as a running mate.
There’s no arguing that Wade was the star of the series, but I’m going to remember just three things from this year’s Finals: Wade’s great play, Dallas’ meltdown and, most importantly, two blown calls in the waning moments of Games 5 and 6 that basically handed the Heat the championship.
Scratch that, I’m going to remember something else as well – how about all of those double-teams that the Mavs threw at Shaq? With Dallas scrambling on defense, those double-teams certainly opened things up for the rest of the Heat, including Wade. My memory is a little hazy, but I don’t remember anyone double-teaming any Chicago players not wearing #23 during the Bulls’ two championship runs.
In general, I like Wade’s game, but he definitely benefited from the generosity of the officials in the last four games of the series, where he shot 73 free throws. In fact, he got more calls in these playoffs than Jordan did during his playoff career – 30.9% of Wade’s points this postseason came from the free throw line. During Jordan’s 13-year postseason career, just 24.4% of his points came from the charity stripe.
But here’s an eerie stat: in Jordan’s 5th playoffs, he scored 183 of his 591 points from the free throw line, which averages out to 30.9%, the only time Jordan scored more than 30% of his points at the free throw line.
So, for now, let’s table this “Next Jordan” talk. If you want something to argue about, who would you take right now – Wade or LeBron? And who will end up with more championships?
