"TIDAL WADE!" Why I'd take Dwayne Wade over LeBron James

First off, let me make this clear, in no way do I think LeBron James is overrated, and nor do I think he is a choke artist. This is merely a personal opinion based on my logic, who some say I don't have, and why I would rather have Dwayne Wade than LeBron James. So, before you cut the brakes on my Honda Accord, send Anthrax to my house, or kidnap my cat, let me give you my reasons for why I'd take Wade over James. There may be less than 3% of the people worldwide that would rather have Wade over James, but I'm happy to say I'm part of that 3%. People I've talked to, Justin Denney who agrees with me, Jake Atwater and Bryan Elder who call me a damn fool, know that I've stood by this opinion from Day 1, so this just isn't something I've developed just three hours ago.

Just for the hell of it, career stats:

Lebron James : 47% FG - 33% 3PT - 74% FT - RPG - 7.0 - BLK .88 - 3.3 TO 7.0 AST - 27.8 PPG

Dwayne Wade : 48% FG - 28% 3PT - 77% FT - RPG 5.0 - BLK - .98 - TO - 3.7 - AST 6.6 25.4 PPG

Next I'll highlight things that each player does better than the other:

James is better at getting to the basket, creating match up problems, he flies in the open court, and is the fiercest dunker I've ever seen. He's also a walking triple double.

Wade, although not as good as James, can also get to the basket but he's not 6'8" 265, he's only 6'4". He has a better back to the basket game, has a better mid-range game, and consistently is a better jump shooter than LeBron.

With that being said here is the top 3 reasons why I would rather have Dwayne Wade

HE'S A CHAMPION
Ok, here comes all of LeBron's boyfriends stating that Dwayne Wade had an all-star cast the year he won the NBA title. Be honest, was Miami's team this year that much better than LeBron's? Let's look at the teams
Miami started - Shaquille O'Neal - Antoine Walker - James Posey - Dwayne Wade - Jason Williams.
Cleveland started - Shaquille O'Neal - Antwan Jamison - LeBron James - Anthony Parker - Mo Williams.
Miami has a total of 5 (Mourning, Payton) former all-stars on their team to Cleveland's 4 all-stars. Ok before I hear the "Well Shaq was so much better back then"! True, but is 13.7 ppg and 10.3 ppg really dominating the 2006 NBA Finals? Guess what? That's what Shaq averaged. Funniest comment I've ever heard was "Well the Heat also had Gary Payton!." Gary Payton also averaged 2.7 ppg in the 2006 NBA finals, The Glove doesn't fit anymore. Back to Wade - John Hollinger, who's a stats guru for ESPN, ranked Dwayne Wade's finals performance as the greatest of all time. If you haven't read it, it's right here.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=FinalsPerformances-1

Wade averaged 34.7 ppg - 7.8 RPG - 3.8 APG and shot 46.8% from the field. He single handily brought the Heat back from an 0-2 deficit, almost a 0-3 deficit if he hadn't scored 13 points in the last 6 minutes to win game 3 in Miami. Besides Michael Jordan's title runs, it's the single greatest performance I've ever seen by a player on the biggest stage. He took his team and city on his shoulder and beat the Dallas Mavericks in 2006 Finals, he knows how to win.


DOWN THE ROAD
I remember having this conversation with Preston Truman one day at work, we both agreed that what made Michael Jordan the greatest ever is that even though he had lost his athletic ability late in his career, he could still dominate a game by using his mid-range game, post up game, and the ability to get to the line. So 5 or 6 years down the road when LeBron's body starts wearing down from taking the physical abuse, will he be able to adapt his game to what Jordan did? I honestly think he'll struggle with this. Let's face it, LeBron isn't the greatest jump shooter. His game is based off getting into the lane, getting fouled, or dunking on people. You are starting to see more and more teams lay off LeBron and let him shoot open jumpers, because they'd rather have him casting up bricks than having him put his nuts in your face. Now I'm not saying LeBron can't get better at this, but in the 7 years he's been in the league he has yet to develop a consistent jump shot. So what makes me think he'll start now? You saw it happen to Dominique Wilkins, he lost his athleticism and was left with casting up a broke jump shot. Wade is a much better mid-range jump shooter, he still needs to improve his 3 point shooting and he made huge strides this year. What sets Wade apart from James is his ability to post up people, either use his fadeaway or get into the lane to draw a foul or finish at the rim. I'm still shocked that LeBron still hasn't developed this part of his game. Think about it, LeBron is four inches bigger than Wade and Wade still shoots a better percentage than him over the course of his career, mostly because Wade has a more polished mid-range game. If Wade develops a consistent three point shot, he will be the most complete scorer in the NBA.

CLOSING TIME BABY -
This isn't even a debate. Dwayne Wade is a better closer than LeBron James. The biggest knock on LeBron James is that when his opponent shows blood, he doesn't go for it. Take guys like Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and add Dwayne Wade, when they see an opponent down, they go for the throat. Watching game 6 of the game tonight, LeBron James was flustered, he was panicky, and he wound up with 9 turnovers for the game. The last 6 minutes of the game, LeBron James checked out. He flipped off the city of Cleveland and shut it down for the rest of the year. Never saw Jordan do that, and I have never seen Dwayne Wade do that. As I stated above, in the 2006 NBA Finals, with his team floundering, Dwayne Wade scored 13 points in 6 minutes to bring the Miami Heat back from the dead. Dwayne Wade basically looked over to the Dallas Mavericks and said "It's on!." Wade finished with 41 points 13 rebounds and 7 assists and never looked back. There's two people in the NBA right now that I want to take the last shot on my team. The first would be Kobe Bryant, I don't care how old he is, Bryant is the best closer in the game today. Second, Dwayne Wade, he's been on the biggest stage, he's closed out on the biggest stage, and knows when to attack a weak opponent. Now with that being said, LeBron's run through the playoffs in 2007 was impressive. His team was garbage and he took the Cavaliers to the Finals only to be swept by my beloved San Antonio Spurs.

As I stated above, this is a matter of personal opinion. I'm sure the LeBron butt huggers will surely be upset that someone could have chosen a different player over their beloved "King." LeBron may be deemed the King of the NBA but how can you be the King of the NBA without winning a title? I never once said LeBron James wasn't going to be one of the greatest basketball players of all-time but as of right now, even though Wade is 4 years older, Wade has had the better career. Speaking of career, I will end on career awards by each of them. I think you'll see they are fairly similar minus LeBron's 2 MVP Trophy's and Wade's Finals MVP and Championship.

Wade : 2006 Champion & Finals MVP - 2009 NBA Scoring Champion - 2010 All-Star Game MVP - NBA Team - 5 Times (1st 2 2nd 2, 3rd 1) - All Defensive Team (2005,2009,2010) - All Rookie Team - 2008 United States Gold Medalist - Six Time All-Star

James : NBA MVP (2009,2010) - NBA Rookie of the Year 2004 - 2008 NBA Scoring Champion - Six Time All-Star - NBA Team 6 Times (2005-2010) - All Defensive Team (2009,2010) - 2008 United States Gold Medalist - All Star Game MVP 2 -

Let the debate begin