Dwyane Wade says the LeBron James who arrived in Miami was already a great player, but the LeBron who left the Heat four years later was something different: a leader and a champion.

In a clip shared Wednesday by Heat Central, Wade said watching James finally win his first ring hit him personally.

“Watching him get that 1st ring, when he said ‘bout damn time’ I felt that,” Wade said. “He was really good before he got to Miami, don’t get that twisted, but then he became a leader, he became a winner. It’s a whole different ball game.”

Wade described the feeling as family pride more than teammate pride: “I was like a big brother watching your little brother do something incredible, nothing better than that.

Watching him go to different levels and heights that I was like ‘oh, I ain’t seen nobody go there before.’”

James joined Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami in 2010 and the Heat reached four straight Finals from 2011 through 2014. The first title came in 2012, when Miami beat Oklahoma City and James was named Finals MVP.

In the celebration, James summed up nine seasons of near misses with the line Wade still remembers: it was about damn time. Miami repeated against San Antonio in 2013.

Wade, by then, already owned a ring and a Finals MVP from 2006, which is why he frames those years as watching a younger star cross a line Wade had already crossed.

The clip circulates as James, now 41, gets ready for his first regular season with the Philadelphia 76ers, who open at the New York Knicks on Oct. 20.

Wade has remained one of James’s loudest supporters; over the summer he said James was still too good not to keep playing. His point here is a narrower one: talent was never the question with James, but Miami is where Wade believes the winning took hold.

Dwyane Wade and LeBron James with the Miami Heat at the Washington Wizards, March 30, 2011. File photo: Keith Allison · CC BY-SA 2.0. Resized.

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