With less than 10 minutes to play in the 4th quarter of last night’s Game 2 matchup between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers, Dwyane Wade got a little pissed. Pacers guard Dahntay Jones seemingly went up-and-down on Wade (I knew a girl in college who mastered that) but the Heat star wasn’t too pleased that the refs didn’t call a foul. So he stood there and let the Pacers score.
As Mario Chalmers brought the ball back down, the Pacers forced a turnover and Wade was pretty much fed up. He sprinted after Darren Collison and jacked him in the back for a flagrant-1 and the title of the Dirtiest Player Not Named Metta World Peace. The Pacers went on to win Game 2 78-75, impossibly stealing one on the road, and they celebrated as such.
Just another thing that pissed Wade off.
“I heard they wanted to be like the Dallas Mavericks, in a sense,” Wade said. “I saw their little celebration at the end of (Game 2). I don’t know if they didn’t expect to win, but every night we go out on the court, we expect to win.” […] “They say their identity, they say they want to be like Dallas,” Wade said. “So they celebrated like Dallas, I guess.” (Via Slam Online)
I understand that the guy’s going to be a little ticked when he feels like things didn’t go his way, even if he did, you know, miss a chance to swing the final score in his team’s favor. But whereas LeBron James never felt comfortable with the role of a villain, it seems like Wade has just fully embraced it and added, “F*ck it, we’re turning this up to 11.”
UPDATE: And of course my previous nominee for GIF of the Year, which has since been replaced by Metta World Peace’s elbow.
(Banner via)