Dwyane Wade Answers Basketball Questions From Twitter

Should the NBA move the three point line back

and add a four point line?

Absolutely not. [laughs]

Hi, I'm Dwyane Wade.

And today I'm answering your Twitter questions.

This is Basketball Support.

[dynamic music]

The first question comes from @TrustTheVoid.

Are 3-pointers messing with the game of basketball?

Would you enjoy watching the NBA

if 80% of shots were just 3-pointers?

How many is too many?

If you're making 'em, it's never too many.

If you're missing all of 'em, that's too many.

I wouldn't enjoy playing the game

with 80% of the shots being threes,

but I can understand the nature of the game today.

I know that three points is more than two points.

And so if a team is shooting 60 threes,

and one team is shooting 30, who's gonna win that game?

Coming from a different era,

you wanna see the game played just the way

that you played it, but you gotta try to figure out a way

to appreciate the game the way it's played in today's era.

@TA_Green30, what's worse, getting blown out by 20,

or losing by one because of a buzzer beater?

Losing by one because of a buzzer beater.

If you get beat by 20, I mean,

you've known for a long time that the game was over.

If you get beat at the buzzer, it's immediate,

you don't know how to process it, so.

Playing Toronto Raptors in the playoffs, in 2016,

and Kyle Lowry hit this like past half court

three-pointer to send the game into overtime.

That hurt.

I think if you, if anybody could see the clip,

you'll see my body just kinda like fall down

and faint it hurt so bad.

@ShootinglikeaGod.

What is the hardest shot in basketball?

The open shot, sounds like it would be the easiest.

For me, the open shot.

I personally like a contest because a contest allows me

to be able to understand how much

arc I need to put on a shot,

makes me focus a little bit more.

A open shot, it makes me think too much.

So I'll take a contest.

So the question's from @MylesPauletich,

and he asked, what rule changes or enhancements

would you like to see added or altered in the NBA?

You know what, I actually, and I personally think

the NBA does an amazing job of understanding

that they need to adjust to the style of play of players,

that they need to always make sure

that they're adding to the game of basketball.

I came in the NBA when people were hand checking,

when people could put their hands on you,

and they can guide you over screens and where you can go.

And then I was in the era where they took your hands off,

and you had to guard a guy like this.

How do you guard a guy that's super fast, and super strong,

and you know, all that, that's getting a ball screen

if you can't touch him?

So the NBA understands what the fans need.

The fans at that time wanted more scoring,

they wanted more excitement.

And so they changed the rules to alter that.

So I'm open to the evolution

and the growth that the NBA always think of.

So I think it's great.

@FastModel, defense debate, no middle or no baseline?

Great question.

I've always been taught no middle

because once the offensive player gets to the middle,

everything on the court opens up.

And so now you have to pull help off other shooters,

off other scorers because the ball

has penetrated the middle of the gap, right?

And so once it penetrates the middle, now everything opens.

If you go baseline, the baseliners becomes the defender.

And so now all you need is you as a defender,

and then just the baseline.

And so I think no middle.

This next question is from @meech_bold.

You think the triangle offense as a primary motion offense

can work in today's NBA?

I do, I actually do.

To me, it's not about the offense,

it's about the mindset of the players in the offense.

It's an offense that's set up for a lot of movement,

a certain talent of individuals.

So if you have the right team,

if you have the right personnel, 100%,

Next question is from @thevjb17.

Why do NBA players have such a hard time

running offense against zone?

That's a great question.

Once you go to a zone, it makes you play straight up.

Most of the game, you in attack mode,

if you have the ball off a pick and roll,

or if you catch it on the wing, you in attack mode.

Something about the zone that puts you around a perimeter

and it makes you catch the ball straight up.

And so, first thing you're gonna do, besides pass-fake,

is try to figure out a way to pass the ball to someone else.

It's not set up for you to be in attack mode.

Any player that figures out that you can still

stay in attack mode, you could still run

your regular offense through a zone

are the best offensive teams in the game.

@gabbyyy_roma, guys?

How do you break someone's ankle in basketball?

It's having the ability to be able to shift your body

quick enough, stopping on a dime, like this,

while the defender is trying to cut your move off,

and be able to bring it back or stop on a dime.

And the defender now is trying to recover.

And maybe they slide, or maybe they fall,

or maybe they trip over their own feet.

@Fahbio11, is there any traveling calls in the modern NBA?

I don't think so. [laughs]

As a fan watching the game, just like you, Fabio,

I never see a traveling call.

You can call travel on almost every play.

And once the NBA has allowed a extra few steps,

it becomes hard to even call travels.

So I would say if you're a veteran in the NBA,

you don't get travels called.

If you're a rookie in the NBA,

you're gonna hear that whistle a lot.

Next question is from @mfort_13.

Should the NBA move the three point line back

and add a four point line?

Absolutely not. [laughs]

I don't think so.

Maybe you have to ask guys who are shooting these threes.

I wasn't really a three-point shooter,

but I do think it's incredible that guys are coming past

half court, shooting the ball like it's a layup.

But the court is the same size, the rim is the same height.

Like certain things is just the same.

When you're trying to match guys and say,

this guy is the greatest, and this guy's the greatest,

how do you do that when you put a four point line,

or eventually if you put a five point line?

And then now it doesn't make it a even playing field

from the standpoint of stacking up

the talent in each generation.

The next question comes from @ClayDade.

Who's the best player to never win

an NBA MVP regular season.

He says, I say Dwyane Wade.

I don't know all the guys who have not won

a NBA regular season MVP.

So Clay, I'm gonna go with you, that guy Dwyane Wade.

Next question comes from @HatfieldAnne.

She's never gotten a satisfactory answer

to why the Harlem Globetrotters don't play in the NBA.

So I'd like to say this,

it's a lot of basketball players who are very, very good.

To make it to the NBA,

the level of greatness you have to be,

the level of a teammate you have to be is different.

The Harlem Globetrotters

and guys who play in the playground,

they're more individual players.

The NBA really focuses on the team aspect,

and not having five guys who are individually great.

Maybe having one, two, and three at max,

but you have to play roles.

It's hard to learn how to play a role,

even though you're talented in the game of basketball.

Next question from @waldy_2000.

How do I hit clutch free throws?

There's something about that free throw line

when you up there by yourself and everyone's watching you.

It's the only time where everything stops.

I always try to visualize the moment.

If I miss certain free throws in practice,

I would make myself run for it, and I don't like running.

So I would, when I get to the line, I'm gonna focus more.

And so when I got to the game,

I was able to be able to focus more

because I know that I didn't like missing free throws,

kind of as I practiced, and try to get to that point.

Next question is from @DameSZN, which is season, _.

What NBA player has the best nickname of all time?

It's a lot of guys.

The first one comes to mind is Paul Pierce, The Truth.

I feel like it gets no doper than that.

But Allen Iverson, The Answer.

To be the answer, that's dope.

Dame Lillard, Logo Lillard.

There's so many amazing nicknames,

but the first one comes to mind is The Truth.

Next question is from @esthercarolinas.

How do I get in the zone?

I cannot tell you Esther, how to get in the zone.

But what I can say, is once you in that zone,

you will never wanna leave it.

Next question is from @mr2humble3.

Who is the hardest person in the NBA to guard?

Well, first of all, it's Kevin Durant.

He's 6' 11, maybe 7' 1, depending on

how K.D. wanna be perceived.

But it's hard to guard a guy who has so much talent

to be able to put the ball on the floor,

can score from inside the paint, to the free throw line,

to the mid range, to the three-point line,

back at half court.

But if I had to pick another player, I would say Giannis.

It's hard to guard Giannis because of his attack.

And he's also 7' 1.

He's a footer coming down

with the ability to be able to handle the ball.

He runs fast, he's point guards,

and just as big as a center.

So it's hard to guard a guy like that who is strong,

and who is aggressive, and as monstrous

as he is on the basketball floor.

It's hard to guard him as well.

Next question comes from @justinwolfson.

He says, I think D Wade is gonna explain in his memoir

how he flipped Andy V upside down on that dunk.

How I think it happened is, I'm coming down the floor,

and I'm coming down full steam ahead.

Andy is backing up.

Right away I'm winning, because I have full force,

and Andy's already, he's backpedaling

because he's trying to get back on defense.

And so once I take off, and I hit Andy body to body,

he doesn't have as much momentum.

I have all my momentum coming this way.

He only have the ability to jump straight up this way.

So the force that I was bringing coming down the court

made him not only get dunked on, but made him fall back,

legs flipped up and hit the back of the thing behind him.

So I think that's the way.

That dunk has been called maybe top 10

greatest dunks NBA of all time.

And it's definitely my best dunk in my career.

So it was a big moment.

It was one of my favorite NBA moments.

Every year it's one of the things they bring back

like this happened on this date.

And so they bring it back as November 12th, this happened.

Then you know it was something.

And finally, I'm gonna say KrYoongles,

sorry if I got that wrong.

What makes the difference between a great player

and the ordinary and average ones?

To make it to the NBA is 400 plus players.

So it's a very small amount of players

that make it to the NBA.

It's millions every year that's trying to get into the NBA.

And what separates a player who's very good,

and who has talent, is something as simple as

the work that you're willing to put in

on your craft and at your craft.

Is understanding what to work on,

how to work on it, and when to work on it.

So for me, it's something as simple as hard work.

A lot of guys have talent,

and they think that their talent

is gonna take them to that level.

But the work that you put in,

the environments you put yourself in,

when you're working hard, allows you to be great

in moments where a lot of people shrink.

All right, that's it.

I hope you guys learned something from me

about my knowledge of the game of basketball.

I hope you guys are as excited as I am

to pick up my new book Dwyane.

Until next time, that's all I got.