S. Samuel
Miami Heat champion Dwyane Wade poked fun at Brooklyn Nets minority owner Jay-Z hours before Wednesday (November 7) night's 103-73 blow-out win in South Beach.
Before Wednesday’s game, D-Wade referenced Young Hov not showing up during his free agent run in summer 2010 but trying to win over teammate LeBron James a year later.
Wade drew laughter after the morning shootaround, pretending he was miffed about Nets part-owner Jay-Z not attending the meeting when the team tried wooing him as a free agent in 2010 — but that the rapper appeared in person for James’ sit-down that summer with the team. “True,” James said. (ESPN)
Miami Herald sports writer Joseph Goodman also quoted Wade’s remark prior to tip-off.
“Dwyane Wade’s biggest take away from his 2010 free-agent meeting with the Nets: “Jay-Z wasn’t there. He was there for LeBron.”,” he tweeted November 7th. (Joseph Goodman’s Twitter)
Both James and Wade spoke on the Nets’s inaugural season after moving from New Jersey to Brooklyn this season.
“It was very exciting to think about Brooklyn, to think about being the first to do it,’ said Wade, speaking candidly for the first time about his meeting with Mikhail Prokhorov and Nets officials in the summer of 2010. ‘I knew what they were embarking on was going to be exciting, but at that time that was two years away. We were at the point where we wanted to do it right away.’ James agreed, saying the Brooklyn vision ‘was hard to see from where they were at the time.’ But both lauded the move to Brooklyn as transformational. James said he called ‘my mentor’ Jay Z to congratulate him after the opener last week. ‘It’s what they’ve had in the works,’ James said. ‘Seeing that dream come true (for Jay Z), not only for the city of Brooklyn, but we all know he’s from Brooklyn, and having ownership in the team, I think it’s great for him, as well, to be a part of something so special. It’s great for the city.’ (New York Daily News)
Wade reportedly left Brand Jordan last month and joined forces with a new overseas sneaker company.
Take that, Nike. Dwayne Wade of the Heat has signed a deal with the Chinese company Li-Ning to create an apparel and footwear line called… drum roll please… Wade. Li-Ning, which was found by the Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Li Ning, said Wade “will serve as the centerpiece of the corporation’s growing international basketball strategy, and be shaped by an unprecedented level of creative and strategic direction from the two-time N.B.A. champion,” according to a statement released by the company on Wednesday. (New York Times)
