Dwyane Wade has experience as an NBA villain. Despite being beloved by the city of Miami, he was a member of the Heat’s Big Three of Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Wade that formed the backbone of the decade’s original "super team."
The Heat, for nearly five years, were the NBA’s must-see attraction — stacked to the brim with superstars that drew massive crowds, jealousy and all sorts of irrational fan mindsets.
Regardless of whether they want to admit it, the Golden State Warriors have taken over as the league’s "unfairly" superstar-stacked franchise — and the head of the monster is Kevin Durant. After leaving Oklahoma City in the dust to join the already championship-primed Golden State Warriors, one of the NBA’s most marketable stars caught severe backlash from NBA fans worldwide because of his free agency decision.
In an interview with Basketball Insiders’ Moke Hamilton, Wade provided Durant with advice on how to handle super-team status:
"I think the biggest thing is, what I say is just enjoy it. One thing we did wrong our first year was we played into the villain role because people was not liking that we was together and we tried to play into that role. That’s not why we started playing basketball — we started playing basketball because we enjoyed it and we loved it.
"When you play that way, you win that way. … That’s the one thing, don’t play into the role of what people expect of you. You have the ability to do whatever you want in life and you made a decision, so live with your decision. … Enjoy your decision and just enjoy playing basketball.”
So can the Warriors can parlay all of this attention into a championship?
"It takes time. … We had great players, but we had a lot of guys who already was used to something a certain way and it just took a little time."
There you have it — it’s that easy, KD!
