Dwyane Wade: ‘I’ve never had to pitch a guy on Miami’

Dwyane Wade is retired now, and is on a pretty hefty public relations tour. Wade recently wrote a book, a memoir titled “3 Dimensional” to be released this fall. So him being in the spotlight following his jersey swapfest last season makes sense.

In any case, Wade will forever be the king of the Miami Heat, and that franchise’s favorite son. Wade famously played with both Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James and Chris Bosh, winning three NBA titles.

So how did Wade end up playing with so many other greats? For one, South Beach has seemed like an eminently attractive domain for NBA players — not just because of the lifestyle of South Beach but thanks to the lack of income taxes in Florida.

And according to Wade, it was those other things that got big names to Miami, not him. Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Wade contends he never pitched other players to come to the Heat.

Via SI:

I’ve never had to pitch a guy on Miami. I didn’t have to pitch Shaq, he came on his own. I didn’t have to pitch LeBron and Chris, it was more so about what we could do together, not necessarily where it was going to be at. If somebody reaches out to me, and asks me what I think, then I give them my spiel. But I’ve never had to pitch a guy on Miami. I think it’s just social media talk. It’s something for someone to write. It’s funny to me.

I’m not sure I necessarily believe that specific version of what weight is selling. If you are giving a Spiel, you are making a pitch no matter what you want to call it. Miami has its attractions, but even as we’ve seen this summer, it’s not as though it by itself can grab big names.

Wade was obviously part of that attraction during his time with the Heat, but it seems hard to believe that he has done zero proactive lobbying in his career.

Pat Riley is a mastermind, and highly influential. But it would be weird if Wade wasn’t also helping to spearhead getting major players to Miami as a means to build championship contenders.