Dwyane Wade puts a new spin on the LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan debate

When pressed, do you choose your idol or your friend?

That was the question essentially given to Hall of Fame guard Dwyane Wade on his podcast on the WyNetwork. As a kid growing up in the dominant era of Michael Jordan in Chicago -- Wade was born in 1982, two years before the Bulls took Jordan third overall -- Wade has always considered Jordan his guiding basketball spirit, and even wore Jordan Brand shoes early in his Miami Heat career.

But Wade himself was drafted in 2003, four spots behind LeBron James, and the two were fast friends even after they tore up the NBA together to win two titles for the Heat in four seasons, with those championships coming in 2012 and 2013. And they remain close now.

"LeBron Jordan debate," Wade told his podcast co-host, photographer and long-time friend Bobby Metelus. "How I'm gonna start defining it. Michael Jordan is my basketball GOAT, mine personally. Right? For all the reasos that he should be. But I do have a new answer of the way I'm going to start answering the question, when people ask me."

"I'm gonna say, Michael Jordan is the greatest player I've ever watched," Wade continued. "He is the greatest player I've ever watched. But LeBron James is the greatest player I've ever seen."

“Michael Jordan is the greatest player I’ve ever watched. LeBron James is the greatest player I’ve ever seen.”

D-Wade with a new stance on the GOAT debate 🍿🔥 pic.twitter.com/KVPbMc5kuL
— Wy Network by Dwyane Wade (@wynetwork) November 25, 2025

Metelus was taken by his answer: "Ooh, I see what you just did there."

"You feeling me," Wade said. "I never saw Michael Jordan. I watched Michael Jordan. I saw and I've seen LeBron James up close. I've played against and I've played with. I personally have not seen a greater basketball player, but I've watched a great basketball player."

Wade may have seen James at the latter's absolute best: the 2012-13 season in which James won MVP while lifting the Heat to 66 victories, including a 27-game winning streak.

Wade was still great then too, starting 25 of 27 games during that streak, and putting up the best numbers he would for the remainder of his career.

At times, Wade outdid James, as he did when he won NBA Finals MVP in 2006 for the Heat when James had yet to break through for the Cavaliers; ad during the 2008-09 season when James was still in Cleveland (first run) and likely shouldn't have won MVP over Wade; and during the 2011 Finals when Wade would have won Finals MVP if James's underperformance hadn't led to a series loss to Dirk Nowitzki and Dallas.

Wade is generally regarded by most sane people -- and not the James Harden supporters -- as the third-best two-guard ever, behind Jordan and Kobe Bryant. His style was more replicative of them than of James, and Wade would readily admit there were things James could do, due to size in particular, that he could not.

Their shared appreciation for each other's greatness was one of the things to savor about the Heat's Big Three era, one of the most pressurized periods any team has had to face. The shame is that it ended so soon, with James returning to Cleveland in 2014, in part because Wade wasn't quite the same sidekick (due to injuries) that he had been. They teamed up in Cleveland, but that didn't go so well and Wade was traded back to the Heat.

But before they separated, Wade saw plenty of what made James so unique on and off the court.

And so he's essentially choosing both when it comes to the great basketball debate.

We will see if anyone else sees it the same.