Nowitzki on HOF Classmate Wade: ‘Not Friends, But No Bad Blood’

After their storied careers clashed in two NBA Finals matchups, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade will join the Hall of Fame alongside one another.

Witnessing your team's best player be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame doesn’t happen often, but for Dallas Mavericks' fans, they'll have that privilege next weekend when Dirk Nowitzki gets enshrined. 

And if you’re like me, someone who grew up watching Nowitzki, most of your childhood and early-adult sports memories will be inducted alongside him.

On “The Saturday Stein Line with Marc Stein,” Nowitzki spoke on the upcoming induction, which includes a stacked class of Gregg Popovich, Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, and Dwyane Wade alongside Nowitzki.

“There were times that all of us didn’t really get along great but that’s part of competing at the highest level,” Nowitzki said of his San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat rivals.

Though Nowitzki had his fair share of battles with the likes of coach Popovich, Gasol, and Parker, when it comes to Wade and the Heat, those battles were more like wars with no stone left unturned. 

“I wouldn’t say friends,” Nowitzki said of his relationship with Wade. “There’s a mutual sense of respect for each other’s career. Obviously we’re cordial. There’s no bad blood anymore. We’ve both moved on.”

Nowitzki recently spoke with The Dallas Morning News on burying the hatchet with Wade when their induction was announced in Houston at the Final Four earlier this year. The two legends and their families sat together at dinner and 'bonded.’

Nowitzki’s Mavs and Wade’s Heat famously met in the NBA Finals twice in a six-year span (2006 and 2011) with both coming away with a championship. In the process, many choice words were spewed from both parties. However, just because the bad blood has been cleared up, that doesn't mean the two are best buds now. 

“Are we friends? No, we don’t text each other, but there’s a lot of respect there,” Nowitzki said.

Although Nowitzki and Wade are in the NBA fraternity, and now, being two of the select few who are Hall of Famers, that doesn't mean they have to be friends. But when two guys battle each other on the highest level possible on multiple occasions, there’s naturally going to be some mutual respect no matter what.

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