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Dwyane Wade Believes His Era Was More Of A Man’s League That Required More Thinking

Last year, Dwyane Wade bid farewell to the game of basketball and to his 16-year long, successful NBA career. Wade, who is one of the best shooting guards in NBA history, was an unreal flashy athlete who also mastered a ton of fundamentals that allowed him to dominate on the hardwood.

Despite suffering multiple injuries, Wade managed to sustain a high-level of play, because he was able to lean on his cerebral game – utilizing his playmaking skills, cherry-picking his spots, finding any advantage he can get without imposing much of his declining athleticism.

Throughout his entire NBA career, Wade saw how the game of basketball evolved in regards to style of play, rules, physicality and players in general. In an interview back in 2018, Wade shared an interesting perspective about the difference of today’s league to the league he first witnessed.

Per NBA.com:

“We’re at a place right now in the league where if you have talent, you can succeed. And I’m not knocking it. It’s just what it is. When I came in it was different. It was more of a thinking man’s game. It was different rules to the game, you know, with hand-checking and everything. It was more of a man’s league, per se.

But now, if you have talent in this league, you’ve got one-on-one abilities, you can succeed. If you’ve got one talent, just one thing you do special, you can be great. If that talent is just setting the pick and roll and then jumping as high as I can for a lob, you can do it, and you can make $200 million doing it. It’s just a different day. And there’s nothing wrong with it. The game changes for every generation. So I hope my son can get a little of this NBA action because I think it’s going to be a really fun era to play in and be a part of.”