Chances are that if someone asked an NBA fan on the street who the best two players in league history are, the individual would answer with Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan and Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James. The pair of players have 10 NBA titles and countless other records and awards between them.
Of course, Miami Heat icon Dwyane Wade isn’t a random person, but he’s the latest NBA great to weigh in on the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) debate, and he unsurprisingly brought up James and Jordan. In an interesting take, Wade said Jordan is the greatest player he’s ever “watched” but called James the greatest he’s ever “seen.”
“There’s no secret about it all: Michael Jordan is my basketball G.O.A.T.,” Wade said. “Mine personally, right, for all the reasons that he should be. But I do have a new answer of the way I’m gonna start answering the question when people ask me.
“I’m gonna say Michael Jordan is the greatest player I’ve ever watched. He is the greatest player I’ve ever watched. LeBron James is the greatest player I’ve ever seen. You feeling me?
“… I had this in my notes in my phone for a while. It clicked to me one night, and I was like, I never saw Michael Jordan; I watched Michael Jordan. I saw and I’ve seen LeBron James up close. … I played against and I played with. I have never seen — I personally — have not seen a greater basketball player, but I’ve watched a great basketball player. And so to me, it’s just a difference.
“And it’s not — the G.O.A.T. debate will forever be a debate. It’s not going anywhere. But when I’m asked a question, as someone who’s played with this man, who’s spent time with this man and played against this man — yeah, I’ve watched Jordan’s greatness. I still watch it. I’ll go on YouTube right now like I had never seen it before, but I’ve never seen Jordan’s greatness up close. I’ve actually seen LeBron’s.”
At first glance, Wade’s take on the G.O.A.T. conversation might come off as confusing, but when breaking it down, it actually makes a lot of sense.
By the time Wade kicked off his NBA career all the way back in the 2003-04 season, Jordan had already retired from the league, so Wade never so much as even played against the six-time champion, let alone with him. However, the guard spent a portion of his pro career playing alongside James, who just so happened to be a member of his very same draft class.
Wade and James were two members of a Big 3 in Miami for four years in the early 2010s, and the former played alongside the latter when James was arguably at his zenith as a player. James won two MVP awards playing for the Heat and also finished in the top three in voting for the award in every one of his campaigns in Miami.
Moreover, Miami made the NBA Finals all four of those years and won back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013 with James as the head of the snake.
It’s worth noting that James and Wade even played alongside one another years after the end of the Big 3 era as well. For a brief time in the 2017-18 campaign, Wade and James both played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the former didn’t even last the full season in Cleveland before he was dealt back to the Heat.
All in all, while Wade has a unique take on the G.O.A.T. debate, it’s an opinion that should be respected.