Dwyane Wade Destroyed A Disgruntled Bulls Fan Who Called Him The Team’s ‘Weakest Link’

Dwyane Wade is in that great spot of being a veteran who has earned the right to say pretty much whatever he wants to whomever he wants. Whether it’s teammates, a coach, the front office, or fans, Wade has been a star in the league for over a decade, winning three titles, and is well-respected enough around the league where he doesn’t have to be as careful with his image.

We saw this earlier in the season when he felt his teammates weren’t providing enough effort, as he and Jimmy Butler called out the rest of the Bulls’ squad. This caused a bit of a locker room split when Rajon Rondo fired back at Wade and Butler, but eventually the team came together to earn the eighth seed in the East, even going so far as to win two games off of the Celtics in the first round.

Wade’s personal brand is in great shape too. He’s still beloved by many in Miami and just generally well liked around the league. That means when a fan comes at him with the wrong tone on Twitter, he can clap back with a vengeance and not be too worried about the optics of it all. That happened on Monday night as he did a bit of a Twitter Q&A/filtered through his mentions and found a fan who was very upset about Wade’s salary.
https://twitter.com/chicagobullogne/status/874319427952619520

This is the response that most every athlete has wanted to give to someone on Twitter at some point, and Wade was just willing to say it. Fans often feel an entitlement for players to perform to their salary level, because reasons. It’s not their money, but they feel as though it is. I guess in a very indirect way, by paying to go to games they’re somewhat pitching in, but it’s not all that much in today’s NBA where TV money is the biggest source of revenue.

Wade has clearly tired of fans feeling like players owe them something special and he decided to let them know that he (and players as a whole) don’t. The second part is just Wade getting this guy out of the paint completely by letting him know that Wade is superior to him in most every aspect of life. This is akin to the LeBron James post-2011 Finals press conference where he reminded everyone cheering his loss that they had to go back to their normal lives, while he’s gonna get to still be LeBron James.

The rest of Wade’s Q&A session went much smoother, as he offered his pick for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, thoughts on LeBron leaving, and offered some interesting answers to other questions, like who is the better finisher between he and Kyrie Irving.

Wade has become one of the NBA’s most honest stars and his answers here managed to be enlightening and genuinely interesting in just 140 characters.