It was clear to everybody outside of South Florida and the Miami Heat fan kingdom that the Heat were not the same team that dominated the NBA from 2010 to 2013. Something was off with the 2013-14 edition of the Heat.
Yes, they still had there “big three” and ESPN overhyping them to oblivion. But the 2013-14 version of the Heat was off; we all knew it, and we all knew why the Heat were off. Dwyane Wade was not having fun playing on that team.
He confirmed those suspicions in an interview today. In the interview, Wade said that last season was not fun and he didn’t know why. Wade said in full:
“I don’t know, It’s hard to say, man, because you want it. We wanted it. So it’s hard to say that. You don’t know exactly what’s going to come with it, but we put ourselves in that position. But sometimes you can put too much on yourself, all of us, and it becomes a black cloud around. Last year wasn’t fun. I mean, there was no stretch of it [that was] fun. That whole season, to me, it’s amazing we made it to the Finals. It’s just honest.”
Yes he is being honest, as were Chris Bosh and Shane Battier, which probably was the reason why Battier decided to hang up his sneakers at the end of the year. But it’s not hard to see why Wade did not have so much fun in 2013-14. He was not in the best of shape, which lead a dip in his production, and maybe the fact that he was having to play Robin to LeBron on a team he made popular was starting to get to him as well.
But whatever the case, the Wade should be in better health this season. He will not have to worry about playing Robin in the house that he built, and he will have the blessing of having diminished exposure and expectations, although the Heat are still favored to be among the East’s top four teams. In short, Wade should have more fun in 2014-15, and maybe put one more championship ring in his case.
Kareem Gantt is a featured NBA writer for Rant Sports. For more from this author, ‘follow’ him on Twitter, ‘like’ him on Facebook, and ‘add’ him to your network on Google.
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