Dwyane Wade played one season with the Bulls in 2016-17.
AP
Late July is usually a slow time in the American sports world.
So kudos to Dwyane Wade for giving us an excuse to rehash the Bulls’ most interesting season of the post-Thibodeau era.
If you missed it, Wade was a recent guest on a podcast called “7 p.m. in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony.” He talked about the single season he spent back in his hometown, playing for the Bulls in 2016-17.
A couple lines in particular seemed to get heavy attention: “I wasn’t really a good vet to those guys, I apologize. … Jimmy Butler was on that team, so he probably picked up some bad habits from me.”
Interesting stuff, no doubt, but also easy to take out of context. Keep in kind, based on playoff wins, the Wade, Butler, Rajon Rondo group is the Bulls’ most successful team since 2015, when they fired Tom Thibodeau after five straight playoff trips.
That team won twice in Boston, led their first-round playoff series against the top-seeded Celtics 2-0. But then Rondo broke his thumb and they lost four straight. Bad result, but a very entertaining series.
Wade was 35 at the time and that team certainly wasn’t loaded with talent. In the Game 1 victory at Boston, Paul Zipser, Cristiano Felicio, Jerian Grant and Nikola Mirotic played a combined 76 minutes.
Anyway, here’s the full context of Wade’s comments. He equated being a bad veteran leader to one specific example.
“Chicago was different,” Wade said. “I was enjoying it. I was the problem then. It was more like, ‘Coach, I’m flying to Miami. What time practice going to be?’
“’When you want it?’
“’Oh, this time.’
“We couldn’t do that in Miami. So I set a bad precedent. I apologize. Jimmy Butler was on that team, so he probably picked up some bad habits from me. I was old. I was a military baby for 14 years, I’ve got one year to get out and stretch my arms, I was like, ‘I’m about to take advantage.’ So I wasn’t really a good vet to those guys, I apologize.”
What Wade was saying is he knew he had enough status in the league to call some shots, so he did. Maybe he was able to push practice later in the day so he could fly back from Miami in the morning.
Here’s something else Wade did. Before the playoffs began, he and Butler went to coach Fred Hoiberg with a game plan they thought would work against the Celtics. Hoiberg said, “OK, let’s do it.” And it worked, until Rondo’s injury.
Maybe the Bulls win that series if Rondo stays healthy. Maybe they win if the Bulls hadn’t chosen Grant and R.J. Hunter over Spencer Dinwiddie during training camp. Maybe the Celtics get their act together either way. We’ll never know.
Wade was talking about spending most of his career in the strict Pat Riley-led environment of the Miami Heat. Being able to fly home on the off-days was a pleasant change from his perspective.
Here’s another fact: Carlos Boozer did the exact same thing during the Thibodeau years, when his family lived in Miami. This isn’t inside-source details, Boozer talked about it openly at the time.
So Wade may have felt like he was getting away with something in Chicago, compared to his years with the Heat, but it was really nothing unusual.
The 2016-17 season will be an interesting debate as long as it hangs in memories. It’s easy to say the Bulls’ decision to sign Wade as a free agent was a mistake. I disagree.
There was more good than bad in Wade’s lone season with the Bulls. The mistake was letting him go, trading Butler and starting a rebuild in the summer of 2017.
The Bulls had an all-NBA caliber player in Butler, cap room to spend and the NBA’s greatest recruiter at their disposal, and gave it all up for a long, slow rebuild — and one playoff win in the ensuing seven seasons.
Wade brought LeBron James and Chris Bosh together on the Heat. What could he and Butler have done if given a chance to seek out some new teammates?
The answer is we’ll never know. Maybe Wade didn’t bring his best defensive effort that year, but no need to apologize. Nobody’s perfect, just check the Bulls front office for examples.