Praise from LeBron
MIAMI — LeBron James said Tuesday he is not surprised how Dwyane Wade made a point of injecting himself into community activism upon his return to South Florida, particularly Wade’s involvement with those impacted by the Feb. 14 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Asked before his Cleveland Cavaliers played the Miami Heat at AmericanAirlines Arena about Wade’s social activism, James said it was what he would have expected of his friend.
“Man, that’s what he is,” James said, with Wade meeting with students at the school a week after the shooting left 17 dead, and then, along with his wife, actress Gabrielle Union, contributing $200,000 to help send students from his Chicago hometown to Sunday’s March for Our Lives in Washington. “When he’s passionate about something, he definitely puts his all into it. So I definitely commend him on that. But it’s not a surprise. We all know how much more he is than basketball, especially in this market.”
James said he has taken notice from afar of Wade’s impact beyond the court since the guard was acquired from the Cavaliers at the Feb. 8 NBA trading deadline.
“I’ve definitely seen what he’s done with Parkland, and also with the march. I’ve seen that, as well,” he said. “It is not surprising. Like I said, D-Wade is a hell of a basketball player, but more than that, he’s conscientious of what’s going on around, as well. So it’s not surprising.”
James, who helped lead the Heat to the NBA Finals in each of his four seasons with the team, winning championships in 2012 and ’13, said returning to AmericanAirlines Arena rekindles memories.
“We had a heck of a run when I was here, in my four years here,” he said, leaving the Heat in free agency in 2014. “So it would be unhuman if you didn’t have any emotions or any memories pop back right to you when you walked into an arena where you had so many games and so many battles and so many great memories.”
He said most of his conversations with Wade focus beyond basketball, but did joke about how their time together during this Cavaliers visit was limited, with the Heat unable to return to South Florida following Sunday’s overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers due to airplane issues.
He also said that with so much roster and injury churn, it feels like more than the seven weeks since Wade was dealt from Cavaliers to the Heat.
“It actually seems like it was a long time ago, to be honest,” he said. “We’ve had like five seasons in one.
“Me and D-Wade being teammates again in Cleveland, it seems like it was years ago. It’s crazy how things have changed so fast. But I definitely don’t take it for granted.”
Wade said he had no regrets about trying to make it work with James and the Cavaliers, nor about how his brief tenure in Cleveland played out. He joined the Cavaliers in the offseason following a buyout from the Chicago Bulls.
“I felt when I was there I did everything I needed to do from the standpoint of being a professional, trying to play my best role on the team with the roster we had, speaking up when it was uncomfortable, and not speaking up at times, as well, and keeping my mouth shut,” he said of being a veteran in a locker room of players who already had succeeded with the Cavaliers.
“If I had to do it all over again in that same position, I would do it the same way while I was there. Obviously when you get away and you hear different things, you think, ‘Maybe I could have done this different.’ I felt I did as good a job as I could coming in with a new team and trying to learn things there.”
iwinderman@ sunsentinel.com the