Dirk Nowitzki Says "There Wasn't A Lot Of Love" For Dwyane Wade After 2006 Finals

Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki recently shared how he felt towards Dwyane Wade after his loss to Wade and the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals

NBA legends Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki battled it out during their careers in the league but are growing as friends since their retirement.

On the debut episode of Wade's podcast 'The Why with Dwyane Wade' with iHeartPodcasts and 'Wade's 59th & Prairie Entertainment', Nowitzki shared his feelings towards the Heat legend after the 2006 NBA Finals loss.

“Well, there wasn’t a lot of love there. I think there were just things said on both sides that weren't appreciated. I think you took offense when I said we kinda gave them [Miami] the championship. Which I probably would have taken offense too because [you] worked extremely hard. You played your butt off and carried them.”

Wade chimed in, “I came back swinging in the media.”

Miami took down the Mavericks in six games, with Wade totaling more than 35 points in four of the six matchups. The performance earned him the Finals MVP. Nowitzki got his revenge in the 2011 Finals, where they upset the Heat's Big Three of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Wade. During that series, Wade and James mocked Nowitzki because of his claim of being sick.

"I remember in the next year, I’ve already moved on obviously and some reporter comes up to me and says ‘Hey did you see what Dwyane said?’ And I was like ‘What?’ this was months later. He [the reporter] was like ‘Yeah, you weren't a finisher, you weren’t a leader.’ And I was like ‘Wow, that came out of nowhere.’ So I didn’t appreciate that of course but now almost 20 years later, I see where both sides were just not happy with how the whole thing went down," Nowitzki expressed. "But I say this all the time. There can’t always be friendships at the highest level of competition.”'

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Anthony Pasciolla works as a contributing writer to Inside the Heat.

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