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NBA FINALS: HEAT v THUNDERJune 13, 2012Dwyane WadeOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Practice Day Q. In the last three series, you played the Pacers, the Celtics and now the Thunder who played the same lineup every day and the same style every day. With Chris's injury you've changed lineups a bunch, you've changed styles a bunch. How difficult or challenging has it been to constantly reinvent yourself over these last three weeks as a team and maybe even individually? DWYANE WADE: It's been different, but there's no excuse. We have players and we've had players in the game that can help us and that can bring us different things. In the perfect world, would we like the same lineup all the way through? Yeah, but we don't live in a perfect world. No excuse, man. Whatever we have to do by inserting a guy back into the lineup, that's what we have to do. Has it been ideal? No. Q. LeBron had the weight of the world on his shoulders because of a lot of different reasons. What have you done as a friend and teammate to try to alleviate some of that pressure from him? DWYANE WADE: I mean, just a friend, just be a friend and be like I've always been. We're together, we're just two of the guys, just hanging out and enjoying friendship. As a teammate, try to instill as much confidence in him as possible, and as a leader, as well. I think we've done a pretty good job in two years together of helping each other out. When times have been hard or tough on the basketball court or off the court, we've been able to be there for each other, and it's been great. Q. What are some things you can do to get started earlier in games? DWYANE WADE: I don't know. Just try to be a little bit more aggressive, and we'll see. Just try to hopefully get more better opportunities. I think yesterday I hit my first two shots, then I missed my next four, so right there, four or five. Just try to look for my opportunities, and when my opportunities come, take them and be ready for them. Q. Are you feeling any pressure like you need to score more points for you guys to win this series? DWYANE WADE: I mean, I want to score more points. I don't deal with the pressure of that. That's when you start thinking too much, too many questions start coming up in your mind, you start overanalyzing things. I want to score more points, I want to get my team more to give us an opportunity to win the series. I'll be more aggressive. Looking for my opportunities a lot more, probably than I have of late. So that will be my change. Q. I think you may have just answered, but maybe expand on it a little bit. How would you assess your game and the adjustments in terms of being more aggressive in your next outing? How do you go about that? DWYANE WADE: Yeah, just being more aggressive, looking for more opportunities. As you seen yesterday, I ran a lot of the sets, I played a lot of point guard yesterday. When you're doing that, when you have the ball a lot to start the offense, a lot of times you're getting off of it, you're giving other guys the ball because you're running the plays instead of receiving it. I just see the situation I'm in, and obviously I try to be more aggressive, like I said, when I get my opportunities, and that's all you can do. Q. You mentioned a few weeks ago that you had passed the baton to LeBron, you wanted him to take control and be who he is. What does that mean for you and your role now and how do you see yourself fitting in and finding a balance? DWYANE WADE: Yeah, that's the toughest part about it. That's the hardest part about playing with another guy with that capability. It's just trying to figure out when to defer and when not to defer. I've played with Shaq before, I've played with a dominant player, and I knew when to defer and when not to defer. I just try to figure that out. Throughout this series like the other series, I'll figure it out. It's kind of a read‑all game a little bit, and I think with me and LeBron, we continue to talk about it and discuss what we feel is the opportunities for that. You know, we'll figure it out. Q. You've been around Pat for a while. What's your feel on how much this means to him and how much he has riding on this? DWYANE WADE: Well, I mean, he's a winner, and he doesn't‑‑ he doesn't believe in settling for losing.  And of course what he has riding on it is he's the president of this team, and he has a job to do, to put the best team out there for our fans, for our community, and for the organization. You know, and the owners of our team there have a lot of trust and belief in him to do that. If anything, that's what he has riding on it. I think when it comes to a personal standpoint he's done everything he can do. Anything he does from that point is just a bonus. He's just adding to his résumé. Q. You talked the other day about Russell's athleticism. I was just wondering about yourself and where you feel athletically you are from when you last won a championship? DWYANE WADE: From 2006? Q. Yeah. DWYANE WADE: I was 24. Totally different. Six years ago, man. I'm not that athletic, I'll tell you that, as I was in '06, but I still have something in me, I still have some left in me. I wish it was possible to stay at that same athleticism as I was at 24, but that's not possible. Q. If you'll indulge a serious answer to a light question, I know you've been to fashion weeks around the world. What and who inspires you fashion‑wise, and I guess in particular the glasses trend that's sort of taken over? DWYANE WADE: You guys inspire me fashion‑wise. I don't want to dress like y'all. Polos. Rachel, you look amazing. You try. Just like everybody, we all have something that we like outside of what we do. For me growing up my whole life when I was a kid, seeing my dad go to work every day, his job was to make it boring and simple, to drive a van around and deliver things, and he dressed up, he wore suits. He really‑‑ what I really seen was that it's his job, he's a professional, and he's going to dress that way. So I just put a little spin on it, you know, have a little fun with it, and over the course of time my tastes have changed, and I take more risk. I enjoy it more so than anything. So this whole fashion trends that come up, I don't know, I'm sure it was done‑‑ Spike Lee been wearing glasses for a long time. I don't know if they're prescription or not. Trends, they come and go, and people get on board with them or they don't. With the nerd glasses that comes in the NBA, it's just something fun to do right now. I'm sure next season it'll be out the window. Q. It seems like you and LeBron and some of the other superstars are so big that we know what parties you went to, who you dated, you all hang together, that kind of thing. DWYANE WADE: Social media, yeah. Q. Kevin Durant plays basketball and no one really knows much about him beyond that. Do you know him at all? Do you know anything about him? Are you friends? Ever hung out with him? DWYANE WADE: No, I don't have a personal relationship with KD outside the court like him and LeBron did, spent time in the summer. If I see him, it's, what up, KD, what up. It's one of those where I respect his game. But I don't know a lot about him, either. I know probably just as much as you guys know. And sometimes it's where you're at. If he was in Los Angeles, Chicago, somewhere, it would be a little different. Being in Oklahoma kind of dims his light a little bit, not him on the basketball court but him off the court. There's not a lot of exciting things going on out here. Q. (Inaudible.) DWYANE WADE: Yeah, I enjoy it. I like quiet as much as possible. I look for quiet every morning I wake up and leave my house. I look for the opportunity for no one to see me. That's not the cards I was dealt. Some players have that ability. Tim Duncan is like that. Watching the Playoffs, I seen‑‑ I'm sure, I don't know if I'm correct, but I seen Tim Duncan sitting on the bench before every game, two kids run up to him, it was a girl and a boy, I didn't know he had kids. I'm assuming they're his. They kind of look like him. But you don't know everything about guys because of certain places they are. Certain guys are so‑‑ try to stay out of the limelight as much as possible, whatever the case may be. It's different strokes for different folks. Q. You mentioned the difference in athleticism from when you were 24. DWYANE WADE: Yeah. Q. Do you fear that very soon you will reach a point where no matter how hard you try to turn it on after a subpar game you just won't be able to do it? DWYANE WADE: One day it'll happen. Father Time will knock on the door and tap me on the shoulder, but not right now. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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