Dwyane Wade’s ‘childish’ admission on he, LeBron James mocking Dirk Nowitzki in 2011 NBA Finals

After the Mavericks tied the 2011 NBA Finals 2-2 with a resounding 86-83 victory, Dwayne Wade and LeBron James were seen coughing as they were walking from the locker room. Their cough was meant to mock Dirk Nowitzki, who played Game 4 with flu-like symptoms. According to many reports, including an Associated Press article from 2011, his temperature even spiked to 101 the night before the game.

Still Nowitski was dominant, finishing the game with 21 points and scoring the go-ahead layup with 14.9 seconds left in the contest. The Mavericks also went on to win games five and six to win the franchise’s first NBA Championship in one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.

Although jovial during the duration of the podcast, Nowitzki let it be known that he wasn’t a fan of the moment.

“I didn’t like it. It just, to me, it felt a little disrespectful. I’ve never had to fake an injury, I’ve never had to fake an illness to show anything. I didn’t feel well that day, had a little fever, and really that was it. I thought it was childish.”

Wade wholeheartedly agreed. “It was childish.”

Nowitzki continued speaking about how he felt, saying, “I think I said it at one of the press conference[s] but at the end of the day, that didn’t add to the motivation. Honestly, at this point we [were] at game five, two games away from achieving my dream which in ‘06 we were two games away. So I really didn’t want this to be a big distraction for me.”

Wade explained, “Like you said, it was kind of one of those things that happened. You don’t know what it’s going to become. I remember walking down the hallway and we were coming out of shoot around. At this point, I think we’re up 2-1. We had that amazing comeback in the Miami game two, but then we came to Dallas and won game three. So, in our minds, we were supposed to be up 3-0. All the talk back to us was, ‘Well, Dirk is sick. Dirk’s hand is this. Dirk’s hand is that.’ We were tired of hearing about Dirk when we were up two games. Why did they keep talking about him being sick or his hand?

He continued, “In the moment, being young and having one of those moments, he was like, “Oh, he’s sick,” and did a fake cough. Boom, it went everywhere, you know what I mean? In our minds, we were tired of it. We were like, “We’re up two, why are you still talking about him being sick or his hand?” It became bigger, but then when you look at it, you’re like, “Okay, that was a moment, a childish moment that was caught on camera.” You wish you could grab that moment back, but at the same time, knowing it didn’t have any bearing on the series. It wasn’t going to make you a greater player. You were already great.”

To many NBA fans who witnessed the legendary bisecting careers of Dwayne Wade and Dirk Nowitzki, it was an amazing experience to hear them speak about the occurrence and amicably move past it.