50 Greatest Basketball Players Ever - 21 to 30 of the best NBA players ever

#24 Dwyane Wade (Active)

Toronto Raptors v Miami Heat - Game Four

The Flash is one of the greatest players of this century. A prime Dwyane Wade was as good a two-way weapon as arguably anyone in NBA history (other than our top 10 players here). D-Wade is the greatest shot-blocking guard of all time and probably the best player in NBA history at splitting double teams.

He could get to the paint at will and is an extremely underrated finisher above and below the rim - his career percentage of shots attempted within 0-3 feet is basically the same as LeBron's at 35.1%. A lack of All-Defensive Team accolades should never detract from the fact that Wade is one of the best help defenders to ever play the guard position or the fact that his on-ball defense was as good as any guard not named Tony Allen or Kobe Bryant in the 21st century.

His performance in the 2006 NBA Finals defies superlatives and is the greatest Finals performance I've ever had the chance to witness. He was already a clutch playoff performer as he proved in his rookie season, and the arrival of Shaq took the Heat to a whole other level and opened up more room for him to operate as the alpha.

The Heat's post-championship seasons were a mess, however. Despite D-Wade's best efforts, they couldn't be any better than teams that exit the playoffs in the first round. The arrivals of LeBron and Bosh on South Beach changed all of that.

D-Wade started deferring to LeBron and gave up some of his playmaking responsibilities to #6. Even so, as the best player in the 2011 Finals, he would've won a second Finals MVP trophy but for the clutch performances put in by the seasoned vets on that Mavs team. However, 2 wins in the 2 subsequent seasons put Wade at 3 championships won.

The clock on his body had always been ticking since the moment he had his meniscus removed on both of his knees, and he began feeling the full effects of this in the 2013-14 season. Still playing at an All-Star level during the regular season, his drop in athleticism during the playoffs was, however, concerning.

After LeBron's departure from South Beach, the greatest player in Miami Heat history somehow found the fire inside him to guide them past the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the 2016 playoffs - hitting 3-pointers as he'd never done before. The Raptors managed to outlast the older Heat in 7 games in the Conference Semifinals, and Wade bolted for his hometown Bulls the following season to link up with Jimmy Butler and Rajon Rondo.

That did not go too well for the Bulls, who have since let all 3 players go. Coming off the bench for both the Heat and the Cavaliers this 2017-18 season, Wade proved that he's still capable of playing at a high level in the league. If only he decides to sign one last contract with the Heat...