LeBron James and Dwyane Wade might have the most famous friendship in the NBA. Dating back to when the pair were going through the pre-draft process leading up to the 2003 NBA Draft, James and Wade have been tight throughout their careers.
It’s led to the two of them teaming up twice — first, James joined Wade in Miami to form a superteam that won a pair of championships. After James left the team to return to Cleveland and Wade spent a few years in Miami and Chicago, the duo reunited again this season as members of the Cavaliers.
Prior to the start of the season, James and Wade sat down with Rachel Nichols of ESPN to discuss their friendship. They spoke on how it began — it involves James skipping Wade in line during the pre-draft process, which Wade gave him a hard time about — and how losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 Finals was a big moment for their relationship.
The real story of @KingJames & @DwyaneWade's 14-year friendship: draft camp, playoff battles, ducking batteries, banana boats & so much more pic.twitter.com/7SFzLwzkUe
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) October 17, 2017
“To be in those moments and be vulnerable in those moments and not care that the other person sees you in that space, that helps the relationship grow,” Wade said.
The pair pointed to a trip to the Bahamas after losing to the Mavericks as a moment that helped, with Wade saying the two were depressed for the first day and James chiming in that they basically sat around a table all day.
They also discussed James’ first game back in Miami — which Nichols attended and said was an unparalleled experience in her time going to sporting events — and both agreed that Kyrie Irving won’t experience something similar in Cleveland. The pair actually said “no” in unison before James dove in and recalled having batteries thrown at him.
But the best part came when Nichols asked James about Wade claiming he was peer pressured into getting on the famous banana boat with James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul.
“He told you what?” James asked with a surprise look on his face. “I don’t know if that’s true or false, but that sounds false.”
The two then laughed about how they kept falling off of the boat, which made James change his mind and say Wade’s claim was true. The conversation then ends with a question about James being jealous of Wade’s hair, which was outstanding, before the two discuss which one is the peanut butter and which one is the jelly in the friendship. Despite some initial disagreement — which included an absolutely disgusted LeBron James saying “peanut butter is dry as sh*t” on television — the pair agreed that James is the peanut butter and Wade is the jelly.
As Wade said, “You can eat peanut butter without the jelly sandwich. You can just have a peanut butter sandwich. You can’t just eat a jelly sandwich.”
