Good read on how underappreciated Wade is in this league

D-League Joined: 01 Feb 2011 Posts: 5

First off, I want to state that this isn't a "whose better" thread. I believe the original poster thinks that LBJ's overall game is slightly better than Wade, but despite playing at the same level as other superstars, Wade still gets no love. So stans relax and don't turn this thread into shiit.

This guy obviously took the time and put the effort into this post, but it's a shame that it was buried in the middle of a 25+ page flame war.

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Originally posted by jrong from another forum:

Quote:

Let me sum up the perspective of Wade fans in two sentences: LeBron is at most 5% better than Wade. But, Wade gets at most 5% of the national recognition that LeBron does .

Look at the national headlines from last night's game. "LeBron and the Heat..." Really? LeBron gets the headlines from last night's game? And no matter which one of them stars in a given game, pay attention to the percentage of highlights devoted to each of them...

It's been going on for so long that all of us have become completely desensitized to it. Just this year, the coverage hijinx that have been pulled by ESPN and NBA TV/NBA.com have made me drop by jaw a couple times. Some of my favorites:

* In a game when Wade/Bron each had 6 TOs, ESPN's graphic had LBJ's pts/asts/rebs and Wade's pts/rebs/TOs-- Wade had 5 asts in the game, and there was absolutely NO reason not to list them instead of his TOs.

* After the OKC game, the NBA TV crew said (and spent the entire time discussing) something to the effect of "Watching the game, you had the feeling LeBron could choose either to control the game as a PG or take over offensively"... Maybe, but spare a few words for Wade who actually did take over offensively..

* After the Knicks game, in which Wade was 13-14 at one point and James was 4 - 21 at the same point during the game, the TNT crew said LeBron should be the designated go-to-guy in the 4th quarter because otherwise it would "confuse the Heat's roleplayers" (I paraphrased)...

* As of one game ago, Wade and Kobe were tied at 25.5 ppg for 5th in league scoring. On NBA.com, if you clicked on the complete list, you would see that Wade was actually in front by the barest of margins... However, on the front page, Kobe was listed in the top five not Wade.... (This is similar to a point in 2009, when Wade and James were briefly tied for the scoring lead, but if you clicked, you would see that Wade was slightly ahead-- yet whose picture was on the front page? I think you can guess...)

* My absolute favorite-- during a game in which Wade was the star-- I believe it was the game following the one in Cleveland-- NBA.com's highlights spent an entire minute to... wait for it...dissecting how LeBron's 3rd quarter was not as effective as his 3rd quarter in the previous game...

....Now you might say, all these items are so trivial, why even mention them? But, if they are that trivial, then why the seeming intentional effort to misrepresent what happened??...

....This isn't new behavior either. Remember LeBron's nightly block reel on ESPN? Yeah, Wade blocked more shots those seasons, just as he has in every season but his injury-year. You know why you don't hear much about LBJ's blocks this year? Because Wade is blocking almost twice as many.

....Tom Haberstroh made an interesting observation. If you google "James, Wade Bosh", you get 120,00 hits. Switch it to "Wade, James, and Bosh"? You'll get 52,000 hits.

....And the thing is I honestly can't decide whether it is in fact intentional on the part of media or if it's just second-nature for them. Do the talking heads/ editors say to themselves "Damn, Wade's stealing focus again!" Or are they just so used to doing stuff like this that they sincerely think that they are accurately portraying what happened in these games??....

....I've thought of the following analogy many times before: collectively media members, fans etc.-- we discuss Wade like he's in some separate category. It's like we're not permitted to compare him to James or Bryant. So it's like we're discussing which one them is the best pro baseball player in the 40s and 50s, and meanwhile Wade is Jackie Robinson, dominating the negro leagues....

....I've made this point before, but it is my contention that in order to properly appreciate Wade's career, we need to recontextualize it by going back to every great moment of his, and asking the question, "What kind of attention would this have received if it was LeBron?"

Seriously, try it. Imagine that instead of Wade hitting the gamewinner in his first ever rookie playoff game another gamewinner in his 5th playoff game and pushing the #1 seed Pacers to the brink of game 7 in the ECSFs, it was LEBRON JAMES!.... Imagine that instead of Wade being stopped only by injury in the ECF from carrying the 05 Heat to the Finals in his 2nd season, it was LEBRON JAMES!...Imagine that instead of Wade shooting 62% against the Pistons in 06 and doing what he did in the NBA Finals, it was... LEBRON JAMES!.... Imagine that in 09, when over a 13 game stretch Wade dropped 37/6/11, it was LEBRON JAMES! (or KOBE BRYANT!)....

....I've been watching basketball since 1980 and sports since 1978. I have never in my lifetime witnessed a superstar on the level of Wade in any sport get the lack of acclaim that he does. I haven't witnessed anything close in fact. It's why I'm such an intense fan. It's the justice aspect. Generational talent deserves to be recognized for what it is. In the case of Wade, it's not. Not even close...

Moderator Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 196 Location: MIA

Excellent post man and glad to have you on the forum. It's amazing how much of an impact the media has on an athlete. It's because of them that alot of people dont even have Wade as being top 3 when he's been at worst the 2nd best player in the league since the 08-0 season. (had him as #1 that season)

Role Player Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 277 Location: 954

it is some Bullshit, but what ive found is that everybody Hates Lebron that isnt a Heat fan, but still has an underlying appreciation of DWade....advertise the more controversial player. for the most part, everyone loves DWade, but there is not enough there beyond basketball to criticize, he is an awesome dude.....even Jordan was a prick....Kobe is a prick and Lebron is a prick...get what im saying?

D-League Joined: 01 Feb 2011 Posts: 5

Yeah, I hear you guys, I still remember the time when Kobe was accused of rape, fast forward a couple years, and his face is all over TV again. Only in America where punk moves are rewarded and nice guys are put in the dog house.

Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 6:38 am

I think the world knows who D-Wade is and what he stands for, only the NBA executives couldn't see it, especially the 08-09 season!

Role Player Joined: 26 Jan 2011 Posts: 277 Location: 954

Hardjelly wrote:

Yeah, I hear you guys, I still remember the time when Kobe was accused of rape, fast forward a couple years, and his face is all over TV again. Only in America where punk moves are rewarded and nice guys are put in the dog house.

Just wait and see...if the Steelers win the superbowl this year Big Ben will instantly be a good person again, especially if he wins the superbowl MVP.....even though he had a sexual assault charge at the begining of THIS SEASON.....fans are predictable....got that from sportsdome btw "Ben Roethlesburger(not googling the spelling)is just one win away from being a good person"LOL

D-League Joined: 25 Jan 2011 Posts: 56

JumpmanWade wrote:

I think the world knows who D-Wade is and what he stands for, only the NBA executives couldn't see it, especially the 08-09 season!

D.Wade will show it again in playoffs this year. But who knows how media will react again.

D-League Joined: 01 Feb 2011 Posts: 5

Another way the national media is trying to slight Wade this year:

http://espn.go.com/nba/noteboo...201/nba-awards-watch

Wade at the number 9 spot, and LBJ at the number 2 spot. Again, let's assume that LBJ is SLIGHTLY better than Wade, but the gap the media is portraying is enormous, a whopping 6 spots between these 2 guys that put up similar numbers. Again, a very disturbing ratio.

This year, the media tends to portrait Wade as a one dimensional scorer, again, most people just accepts that as the truth. What most people failed to realized is that this one dimensional scorer (for his entire career minus this season) actually averaged more assist per every minute of play than the great LBJ. 0.176 vs 0.172 assists per minute. Nor will they know that Wade carried a 34.8 assist% for his career until this season. The funny thing about perception is that if LBJ was able to adjust his game and play off the ball, the headlines would read:

"LBJ versatile enough to adjust his game to cater to new teammates, therefore assist numbers are down"

BUT when Wade changes his entire game like the way he did this year, hes just a pure scorer, his passing and facilitating prowess are buried just like that, as if it never happened.

This "engine" (facilitator) role which both these guys can play are also what's separating them by 6 spots on that MVP ranking. Could you IMAGINE if their roles were switched? Wade dishing and LBJ scoring? I believe LBJ will be RIGHT UNDER Wade, and NOT 6 spots below. Why? Perception...

Manu Ginobili is number 10 on the list, this shows what influence hype and perception has on a players chance at the MVP. I dislike Ginobili for his flops, but having him at #10 is just absurd. He is arguably the the best player on the best team (record wise).