The Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers are set to square off on Tuesday night, and to make the matchup more interesting, Dwyane Wade had some high praise for a player on the opposing team.
Wade has always been fond of what Kobe Bryant has been able to do on the basketball court, and even though he’s played alongside both Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, the Heat guard thinks Bryant is the “greatest player of our era.”
“I do feel — and I’ve said this before the last couple of years with LeBron [James], when he became the best player in our game — that Kobe Bryant is the greatest player of our era,” Wade said, via Michael Wallace of ESPN.com. “The Kobe Bryants aren’t around no more. There are good young players, but there will never be another Kobe. So every opportunity you get to [face him], you want to seize that moment.”
Bryant is playing in his 20th season in the league, and the 17-time All-Star has won five championship rings and was named the NBA’s MVP in 2008. Many have argued that he and Michael Jordan are two of the best pure scorers the league has ever seen, as Bryant averaged 30 points or more per game in three different seasons earlier in his career.
Just for discussion purposes, Bryant was likely competing against the likes of O’Neal and Tim Duncan for this accolade. James and Carmelo Anthony didn’t even enter the league until 2003—the same year as Wade—so anyone that thinks Wade’s comments are a veiled shot at James would probably be wrong.