When he was in his prime, Miami Heat great Dwyane Wade wasn’t just a dynamic scorer, but he was also one of the NBA’s best at drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line.
In fact, Wade recently admitted that he took “advantage of the rules” in order to get himself to the charity stripe many times.
“I eventually took advantage of the rules,” said Wade while on the No Chill podcast with Gilbert Arenas. “That’s how I got so many free throws. I took advantage of it wasn’t vertical at the time. So you jump into a big man, it’s a foul on him. That was the rules, so I took advantage of it.”
When the Heat won their first NBA title in 2006, Wade swung the championship series in his team’s favor with some late-game free throws. It drew some criticism from some observers who felt that Wade was the beneficiary of favorable officiating.
In his heyday, Wade may have been the quickest player on the baseline in recent memory. He was so quick that then-teammate Shaquille O’Neal nicknamed him “Flash,” after the comic book superhero.
That quickness no doubt helped Wade draw fouls on helpless defenders.
In today’s NBA, players such as Brooklyn Nets star James Harden have been criticized for gaming the rules on the books to draw fouls and shoot free throws by the bucketful.
It may not be aesthetically pleasing, but it is a part of the game, at least according to the rulebook.