Two former Miami Heat stalwarts question Giannis's leadership

It's no secret that the Miami Heat covet Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Milwaukee Bucks forward, who is now out again with a calf injury, is the talk of the NBA, due to the possibility that he could more formally request a trade prior to the Feb. 5 deadline, with his new ailment unlikely to scare many teams away.

Certainly, the Heat will not shy away, even if pursuing Giannis would require them to give up many of their current young players, and even if he may be out a few weeks. They have always pursued the premium player, and those pursuits have led to three NBA titles -- with the likes of Shaquille O'Neal, LeBron James and Chris Bosh arriving from other organizations and then participating in championship parades.

Two players who started their Heat careers in 2003 were big parts of all three of those titles, and they now work on the media side, part of the NBA on Prime team for Amazon. Neither was shy about sharing their opinion when they played for the Heat, so certainly they aren't now. And both Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem think Antetokounmpo could be handling things a little differently when it comes to public discussion of his teammates.

Dwyane Wade on Giannis leadership style calling out his teammates and compares it to him calling out Hassan Whiteside to the media 👀

“I’m not the guy to talk about how you should say things publicly or not because I’ve publicly have came out and gotten on my teammates but every… pic.twitter.com/TkeR55W6x4
— Heat Central (@HeatCulture13) January 24, 2026

Wade was somewhat diplomatic during his career, especially so early on. But he did at least share frustrations about former Heat No. 2 overall pick Michael Beasley and even more so about Heat find Hassan Whiteside, who emerged out of nowhere in 2014-15 after LeBron James left Miami and got a max contract from the Heat in 2016 -- when Wade, frustrated that not enough money was left for him, took off for Chicago.

Wade acknowledged that he was not immune from speaking his mind, as Giannis did this week -- prior to the calf injury -- by saying that too many other Bucks were trying to do too much by themselves, as Giannis's own shots had decreased.

Giannis:

"We're not playing hard. We're not playing to win. We're not playing together. Our chemistry's not there. Guys are being selfish. Guys trying to do it on their own. Right now I think we just don't get it. We got 39 games left, we don't have time. We really don't" pic.twitter.com/KSq8ngupQB
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) January 22, 2026

Wade was asked Friday on the Amazon set about Giannis's approach.

“I’m not the guy to talk about how you should say things publicly or not because I’ve publicly have came out and gotten on my teammates but every teammate I’ve publicly have called out, I’ve sat down with them. I’ve had conversations with Hassan Whiteside after calling him out in the media and talked about what he really wanted from this game and how can we help him get to where he wanted to go because he wasn’t doing that. This is an important time for Giannis as he grows into this next phase of his life to be a leader and see what that next phase of being a leader is like.”
Dwyane Wade

While Haslem was not at Wade's level as a player, he had an even stronger voice in the Heat locker room during his 20 seasons, all with Miami. He said that the Bucks' all-time leading scorer needs to talk to his teammates "behind closed doors," especially the young, impressionable ones, rather than merely airing it out to the media.

Udonis on Giannis' recent comments:

"When you start saying guys are being selfish what guys are you talking about? Put a name to it. That conversation needs to be had behind closed doors in the locker room with the guys. The leadership has changed from when I first came in the… https://t.co/r7GUr5CCY6 pic.twitter.com/SDMh8pWo4A
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) January 24, 2026

Of course, whether Antetokounmpo is handling everything ideally or not, you can bet that Wade and Haslem will take what else he offers. Both of them are are still close to the Heat organization, with Haslem actually still working for it, and Wade has spoken about his frustration that the Heat haven't gotten many stars lately and are stuck in the middle.

Maybe all he needs is a change in scenery to change his approach. A little Culture, perhaps.