The Miami Heat became the most popular team in the NBA as soon as LeBron James announced he was taking his talents to South Beach. Some loved them; some hated them.
The Heat made the NBA Finals right away to face a veteran Dallas Mavericks team that seemingly had no chance to beat them. The Heat vastly underperformed and wound up losing in six games.
And as much as people have talked about Dirk Nowitzki’s incredible playoff run — and rightfully so — Dwyane Wade believes it all went down to the play of one unsung hero: J.J. Barea.
Dwyane Wade Says J.J. Barea Killed The Heat
“We got outplayed and outcoached,” Wade said on Shannon Sharpe’s ‘Club ShayShay.’ “If you go back and ask the players, and ask Spo & the coaching staff, they got outcoached, and the players got outplayed when it came down to winning. We didn’t close out games. We got outcoached by Rick Carlisle, and we got outplayed by Dirk and Jason Terry, and JKidd, and that little J.J. Barea”.
“Nobody gave him credit, J.J. Barea changed it, and we didn’t have no answer for him,” Wade continued. “No one played for little J.J. to come off the bench and do what he did. I look at the MVP from a player who really helped push that series over, I give it to J.J. because we didn’t have no answer for him.”
Notably, Barea torched him for 15 and 17 points in the final two games, nearly twice as much as his season average. He made some winning plays on both ends of the floor, and Wade will never forget his name from that day on.