Dwayne Wade Describes LeBron's 2011 NBA Finals Meltdown

The 2011 NBA Finals are still one of the most remembered among NBA fans. It represented the Big 3 in Miami’s first chance at winning a title. It was also one of the most exciting upsets in NBA history when Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks shocked the world by utterly dominating LeBron James and the Miami Heat. 

The Heat were the villains of the NBA, and nobody wanted them to win. Fans especially loved watching LeBron James, who struggled mightily in the series, fail to live up to the Heat’s championship expectations. 

Dwayne Wade recently reflected on the 2011 NBA Finals and how he could have been a better leader by helping LeBron out of his funk. 

“I was on Bron. That’s my job. That’s our relationship. Two of best players in the game is to pull that out of each other. Going into Dallas I felt we had two mis matches. I felt no one could guard me, no one could guard him. They may be the better team possibly but we got the two best players… When I saw him not perform the way he’s been since he was on ESPN in high school I was like ‘what’s going on?’ Idk if I approached it the right way but I was on Bron to wake up…. I wanted to get to the root of it because bro, this is why we got together. He couldn’t get out of it, he struggled a little bit. I felt I had the best series and a chance to win finals MVP if we win, I had a really good series. I feel like I failed my leadership responsibilities. I just know we didn’t get the LeBron we got the next 3 years which is unfortunate because I felt nobody could guard him in that series… I was mad, because I wanted us to put the middle finger up to all the haters.”

There’s only so much a teammate can do. LeBron was obviously in his head during the 2011 Finals, and wasn’t able to overcome his mental demons. The Dallas Mavericks also played a hell of a series and were the better team.