Dwyane Wade: Celtics ‘better than Heat’ right now

By Jessica Camerato
CSNNE.com

The Miami Heat were heralded by many as the team to beat before they even played a minute of basketball together. But two early losses to the Boston Celtics and a 7-4 record have proved nothing is guaranteed in the NBA.

In an interview with Esquire Magazine, Dwyane Wade discussed the road ahead for the Heat and the opposition he expects to face along the way. He also gave credit to Shaquille O'Neal for doing more than helping him win a title in Miami.

"We'll be the Yankees of basketball. It's already truea lovehate thing, but you know what? We're fine with that. We understand that we did something we wanted to do. As an individual, you don't get an opportunity to do that often in this game. That's what it came down to with usmyself and Chris and LeBronwe all felt for the first time we were able to control our own destiny."

"This team has a lot of work to do. I don't look at the individual players right now and say, 'Oh, my God, this is amazing.' I say, 'This team, we got a lot of work to do, because there's a lot of teams out thereL. A., Orlando, Boston, and so onthat are better teams than the Miami Heat right now. So how do we get to their page fast, like, now?' I look at this team and I'm proud of it, I'm happy, but once tomorrow starts, we got to get to practice. We got to get to work."

"One thing Shaq did for me when he came was give me knowledge that I needed. I was still a shy kid, and he pretty much told me to open up. He said, 'Let your creativity be seen, put your fingerprints on the things that you're doing.' It opened up so many more business opportunities for me . . . Anybody can say what they want to about Shaq, but he's a great businessman, a very smart man."

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