Pat Riley Compares Dwayne Wade to Two NBA Legends

On Sunday, Pat Riley was finally cemented in Los Angeles Lakers history. While his accomplishments as part of the Lakers organization already speak for themselves, the Lakers officially unveiled a bronze statue of Pat Riley at Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena.

Before and after the ceremony, Riley was given the stage to talk about his career both as a player, coach, and executive. He got to relive the good ole days, being asked about his time with the Showtime Lakers and the Heatles in Miami. 

One interesting comment that Riley made was when he compared Dwayne Wade, Miami’s beloved star during his time with the Heat, with two of the all-time great shooting guards the game has ever seen. 

“I say this with all honesty. I’ve watched them, my teams competed against Michael Jordan to the nail, and Kobe to the nail. If you look at Dwyane Wade and his style of play, he was right in that basket of how they played. You know, when he was young and athletic. Big hands, and long arms. What a competitive attitude he had, all 3 of those guys. All 3 of them had the DNA in them. Dwyane was special.”

While of course Riley is bias, there are certainly similarities between Wade, Bryant, and Jordan. In fact, at his peak, comparing Wade to either of those legends didn’t seem that crazy. 

Unfortunately for Wade, his highest level of play was short-lived. Especially if you compare it to Kobe or Jordan. If Wade was able to keep up his elite two-way dominance for a decade-plus like Jordan or Kobe, it would be a lot more reasonable to put all three of their names in the same conversation.