Before this summer, the answer to the question, 'Who's the star of the Miami Heat?' was always the same, Dwayne Wade. He's been in Miami for 6 years. His only season averaging under 24 points per game was his rookie season. In 2006, Shaq teamed up with him and he won a championship. He also won a scoring title 2 years ago by averaging 30.1 ppg. Fast forward to this past summer when LeBron James and Chris Bosh join the team and now all of a sudden there is a dilemma. The dilemma is: is the Heat Wade's team or LeBron's team? Bosh apparently can't be the star of the team. Why? I don't know. I didn't create this dilemma.
LeBron James spent the last 6 years carrying the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise on his back. He has won consecutive MVP's and reached the Finals once while there. But he didn't win. This summer he became a free agent. He weighed all his options; well, he supposedly did, and then decided to announce his decision on national television. This special that he and his people organized would be on ESPN with its proceeds going to charity. It would be called 'The Decision.' Within the first few minutes of this special he said these words: 'I am taking my talents to South Beach.' After that sentence chaos ensued. Mass t-shirt burnings were happening in Cleveland while riots of celebration went on in Miami. 15 million people watched that hour special as the Miami Heat became either beloved or hated. His reasoning for leaving Cleveland for Miami? He wanted to win championships because that's what his career would be defined by. While chaos ran amok in the streets, it also ran wild in the media. Every NBA analyst had to answer that question in the previous paragraph.
Now to me that question is obvious. It's Wade's team. He's been around longer, and he's already proved himself. He's also accomplished what James is hoping to do, win a championship. How can it possibly be James' team? He has done nothing for Miami besides agree to play there for the next 6 years. Some will say it's LeBron's team because he is the bigger star and better player. I would say the first part of that statement is true, but the second is rather debatable. If you judge players the way LeBron does, Wade is the better player because he has reached the Promised Land and won. Statistically James is better player, but then again James didn't have much help in Cleveland. He only got Mo Williams during the final few years of his time in Cleveland, and he didn't even play a full year with Antawn Jamison. I realize that Wade never exactly had any key help either besides Shaq, but his numbers are still slightly worse than James. So maybe James is a slightly better player.
Who's better or not shouldn't matter though. Wade has the time, the championship, and the trust of Miami. Getting back Dwayne Wade was the key focus this offseason for the Miami Heat, not acquiring LeBron James or Chris Bosh. They renamed the county Miami-Wade County, not Miami-James County. Dwayne Wade is the main factor of the Miami Heat. Wade is Batman and LeBron is Robin and Bosh can be like Catwoman or something. The point is that the Miami Heat are Wade's team. LeBron is just a really good player that followed him there. The star of South Beach is known as D-Wade, not King James, and you can count (your stars, get it?) on that.
References
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=1987
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/stats?playerId=1966
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