Dwyane Wade Explains Why He Never Tried To Convince LeBron James To Sign With Miami

The night before LeBron James announced his decision to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a local news station got video of Dwyane Wade and him talking on the tarmac at Miami International Airport.

It was the peak of the LeBron free agency hysteria. The blare of a jet engine obscured their voices, but we speculated about what they said anyway.

Was this Wade begging him to stay?!

It turns out that Wade never tried to recruit LeBron to re-sign with Miami, he told Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report.

Wade and LeBron are friends, he explained, and he didn't want his own situation to taint the advice he gave LeBron:

"That's all I ever will be is Dwyane the friend. Dwyane the teammate, I'm not that guy. I knew whenever it comes to somebody having to do what's best for them, I'm always going to take myself out of it and give them the best advice I feel I can give. I'm not going to be biased and give them what I think is going to be best for me. I'm going to give them what I feel is best for them, and I've always been that way in any situation. I tried to be selfless. I took being his teammate out of it and I was just his friend. It was as simple as saying, 'Do what's best for LeBron James, because everybody is going to benefit from you. You stay in Miami, we benefit from you. Wherever you go, do what's best for you, because wherever you play, somebody is going to benefit off of you. So you have to be happy with your situation.'"

The whole interview is worth reading. The impression that you get is that Wade felt the Big 3 had run its course, and he's not regretful at all that they couldn't stay together for longer than four years.

LeBron scored 30 in a losing effort in his return to Miami on Christmas.