Dwyane Wade knows a little something about superteams and the baggage that comes along with them. Back in 2010, LeBron James and Chris Bosh famously took their talents to South Beach to join forces with D-Wade.
During that first season though, the Heat trio, who were loved individually before joining up, became the villains of the NBA. After a 9-8 start, Miami looked out of sync and faced heavy scrutiny from fans and media.
The 2015-’16 Warriors are experiencing a similar level of scrutiny and hatred, and Wade spoke with Basketball Insiders’ Moke Hamilton to reflect on the Big Three’s first season and offer advice to Kevin Durant and the Warriors.
Wade and the Heat embraced the villain role at first, but the superstar advises against doing that, saying that the Warriors should remember why they started playing basketball and “enjoy it:”
“I think them guys understand what it takes,” Wade said of the sacrifices needed to win under such circumstances. “I think the biggest thing is, what I say is just enjoy it. One thing we did wrong our first year was we played into the villain role because people was not liking that we was together and we tried to play into that role. That’s not why we started playing basketball – we started playing basketball because we enjoyed it and we loved it.”
The new Chicago Bull also said that the Warriors should play with joy and that KD, who is under a microscope, should “enjoy [his] decision:”
“When you play that way, you win that way,” Wade said of playing with joy. “That’s the one thing, don’t play into the role of what people expect of you.
“You have the ability to do whatever you want in life and you made a decision, so live with your decision,” he said of Durant, specifically. “Enjoy your decision and just enjoy playing basketball.”
Golden State is off to a 4-2 start and take on the Pelicans tonight at Oracle.
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