Basketball

“This Dude’s Crazy”: Dwyane Wade Was Stunned to See LeBron James Jump Off a Balcony After 2011 Finals Heartbreak

Jeet Pukhrambam
|Published Apr 28, 2023 02:25PM UTC

To lose an NBA Finals might perhaps be one of the most heartbreaking moments in an athlete’s life. For LeBron James, the second one pierced his heart. It was so bad that even on vacation, he couldn’t care about anything. Dwyane Wade recently recalled a shocking ordeal where the Lakers superstar dived straight off a balcony!

Imagine the state of mind you need to be in to dive straight into a pool, without even changing your clothes. The fact is, on vacation, most of us might even consider it. It sounds fun, right?

But for a professional athlete, things might be different. It might just be that they have certain obligations toward other duties. they simply cannot be jumping off a balcony to “test the depth of the pool”.

Dwyane Wade’s recollection of this story might shock you.

Loading embed tweet https://twitter.com/Rachel__Nichols/status/1651649791439536128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

“I was like, ‘this dude is crazy!'”: Dwyane Wade was Shocked after LeBron James impulsively dived from his balcony into the swimming pool

As per this first-hand account from Dwyane Wade on his sitdown with Rachel Nichols, the Miami Heat’s star duo had planned a vacation even before their playoff run.

But the misfortune of that season meant that the vacation came with a dark cloud shadowed over it. When Dwyane and Gabrielle Union welcomed LeBron James and his wife Savannah, they didn’t expect him to act so impulsively.

“We had this house in the Bahamas, my wife and I got there first, Bron and Savannah came in, and we had some other friends there. The first thing, LeBron came in, said what’s up?’, look down, there’s a pool down there”, Recalled Wade.

Here is the crazy part, where James asked him, “How deep do you think that is?”, Dwyane replied, “Hmm, 8-9 feet?”, Bron replied, “Let me see”, and then proceed to keep his stuff down and dive right in.

The Heat had just lost a thrilling series, one where they were expected to triumph, and the weight of the loss was so heavy, LeBron didn’t care.

The gut-wrenching loss to the Dallas Mavericks

The 2011 NBA Finals saw LeBron James and the Miami Heat face off against the Dallas Mavericks. The Heat were the favorites to win. LeBron James had joined forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the offseason to form a “super team.”.

However, things did not go according to plan for Miami as they struggled to find their footing against the Mavericks. LeBron James, in particular, faced heavy criticism for his lackluster performance in the Finals. Many even questioned his ability to perform under pressure.

In the end, the Mavericks emerged victorious. They won their first NBA championship in franchise history while the Heat were left to lick their wounds and regroup for the following season.

Share this article

About the author

Jeet Pukhrambam

Jeet Pukhrambam is The SportsRush's Lead Editor for Basketball. After freelancing for five years as an independent writer, Jeet created thousands of blog posts and articles. He now covers intriguing news reports and throwback stories on all things NBA. His interest in NBA started with the ascendancy of Giannis Antetokounmpo in the 2016-17 season. Since then, Jeet has managed to coalesce his knowledge of the game and his writing to create pieces that are reflective of the current state of the league. Now, he ensures that The SportsRush produces the highest quality of writing. In his free time, he enjoys playing football, cooking, traveling, and dancing to techno. Jeet takes pride in his critical thinking, music playlists, and his love for spaghetti.