Since it has been almost a decade since fans got to witness a prime LeBron James playing alongside Dwayne Wade on the Miami Heat, people may have forgotten what the duo was capable of accomplishing. To the newer fans that might not be aware, LeBron James decided to take his talents to the Miami Heat back in 2011 in order to partner up with Dwayne Wade and compete for an NBA title.
Wade had already won a championship alongside Shaquille O’Neal at the time and partnering up with LeBron would certainly give him multiple opportunities to add to his accolades. The duo instantly transformed the Miami Heat into a championship contender and managed to win two NBA titles within a span of 4 years.
Iman Shumpert is a recently retired NBA player who had the opportunity to play alongside King James with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He had just started his career with the New York Knicks when LeBron joined the Miami Heat. Shumpert was recently asked about the best version of LeBron James over the years. Since this is a question that fans might struggle to answer, let us take a closer look at Shumpert’s take on this subject.
Were LeBron James and Dwyane Wade the best duo in NBA history?
After retiring from the league in 2021, Iman has continued to make his presence felt in the basketball community via his interviews on social media. Since he has inside stories on iconic players such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, this is no real surprise. Here is what he had to say when asked about the best version of LeBron James.
“I think the best version of was…You remember the year where Dirk won? That next year they came back when him and D-Wade vowed not to shoot, not settle for threes and they played their whole first season and they wasn’t shooting no threes. They was just attacking, it was vicious. I was like bro what the f*ck are we supposed to do with that…”
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Veteran fans will remember that the LeBron James and D-Wade Miami Heat lost to Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals despite being considered the overwhelming favorites. That likely led them to play in a more aggressive manner next season. Since they won two titles in a row after that, it makes sense for Shump to claim that 2012 LeBron was the best version he had ever seen.
Although LeBron and Dwyane Wade were an excellent duo, fans are still debating as to whether they were the best of all time. After all, a lot of dynamic duos such as Kobe and Shaq or Jordan and Pippen have just as many or more championship accolades from their time together. Nonetheless, there is no denying that LeBron and D-Wade were a deadly threat across the league at the time.