NBA star, Dwayne Wade, decided to come back for one final season with the Miami Heat to make an impact before his retirement. Wade’s stellar career includes playing alongside superstar Lebron James for four seasons.

After losing the Finals in the 2011 season, Wade knew some things needed to change. The partnership between Wade and James needed fine-tuning. Wade realized over the course of the season that James was actually the better player … Wade knew he had to put the franchise he had built into another superstar’s hands. The conversation happened in the Bahamas, with Wade and Lebron on vacation with their families.

“It was the first time we’ve seen each other since we lost,” Wade recalls. “I remember sitting with my wife and just thinking, What can I do next year to be better? And I knew it wasn’t what I did on the court … So I knew it had to be something else. I watched Lebron up close. I knew he could go to a level that I couldn’t go to. And I also wanted to take a little bit of that looking-over-his-shoulder mentality away. So I said, ‘Go ahead, bro. Be your great self and we will all figure out how to be great around you.’”

The importance of that conversation was not lost on the Heat’s coach. Coach Spoelstra said, “How many guys are willing to do that? That’s when our team really took off, when Lebron was able to be the best player in the galaxy. Dwayne kicked that off.”

Source: Rohan Nadkarni; “Blaze of Glory,” Sports Illustrated (4-8-19), pages 67-68