After taking home the gold with Team USA in 2008, basketball legend Dwyane Wade is taking on a new role at this year's Olympics: on-air analyst for NBC.
Sitting down with TODAY.com, the former NBA All-Star, 42, explains that he felt “more in control” as a player on the world stage. Being NBC’s analyst for men's basketball for the Paris Games, he says, is “a little different.”
“I think I’m going to be a little nervous, definitely. But ultimately, everyone keeps saying the same thing,” Wade says. “They keep telling me ‘just be myself’ and ‘I know the game of basketball.’
Wade, who starred for the NBA's Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers and who has previously provided basketball commentary on TV as a studio analyst, says he predicts this new role will be about “understanding the moment.”
However, he notes that being too ingrained in the world of professional basketball could pose a challenge to relating to a wider Olympic audience.
“I know I can speak from a player’s perspective, but also I can speak about the coaches. I also can speak about the refs. I can also speak about the atmosphere,” he says. “So I know all parts of the game. I know how the arena’s ran, I know (how) the concessions are ran. Like, I know too much. And so how do I take all what I know and make it concise? Make it poignant? And make it exciting?”
Wade says he knows the “locker room talk,” but understands he needs to be able to “break it down” to make the information digestible for both an avid basketball follower and an all-around American sports fan.
“You may tune in, but you haven’t followed these players. You haven’t followed the game because you have a life, because you have a career — whatever is going on,” Wade says of his expected audience. “So how can I get those individuals to tune in and want to listen from our perspective?”
The USA men's basketball team will be aiming to take home its fifth straight gold medal at the Paris Games. The roster features veterans like three-time Olympic champion Kevin Durant and the NBA's all-time leading scorer, LeBron James.
The team will also feature Stephen Curry, Devin Booker, Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Anthony Edwards, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Haliburton, Bam Adebayo and Kawhi Leonard.
Wade, who in addition to capturing gold at the 2008 Beijing Games also won bronze at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, is taking notice of the major impact the acclaimed vets could have on the game.
“You got a few (players) going for their first gold, but you got a lot that have won multiple golds,” Wade says. “I think it’s great because those individuals can show the younger ones, or the ones who haven’t won gold, what needs to happen is not just showing up or bringing your talent to the table and thinking that’s going to be enough.”
When asked which team he feels poses the greatest competition to the United States, Wade says he doesn’t know at this point. He adds, though, that he likes Canada’s team and says NBA fans can look forward to spotting familiar faces in different countries’ lineups.
“I think that’s one of the biggest changes from back in the day when you saw the Olympics and you knew all the American players, but you really didn’t know the players in these other countries. Now, you’re going to look out there and you going to be like, ‘Wait, that’s the starting five for that team.’ You don’t know just one squad. So, I think that’s going to be exciting and different.”
Though Olympic basketball relies on slightly different rules from the NBA, Wade says that players don’t typically feel a massive adjustment because “the game is the game.”
He notes, however, that there is one element of the Olympics that feels like a change from professional basketball.
"It's just being an Olympian, the atmosphere," he says. "When you look at other countries, how they support — no matter (if) they're up or down 40 — the way they are cheering, the way they sing, the way they are standing up. It's a different kind of appreciation for your country.
“Like I say, we all feel united at that time,” he continues. “And so, that’s going to be a little different than being in an NBA arena.”
As a former Olympian, Wade is giving some words of wisdom to the athletes gearing up to bring the heat in Paris in just a few weeks.
"It comes in and goes, enjoy it," he says. "Get all that you can out of it. Individually, of course, but, you know, together. It's all about the 'U,' the 'S' and the 'A' — it's nothing like it."
Team USA's open group play will kick off July 28 in Lille, France, at 11:15 a.m. ET against Serbia. The team will then face South Sudan on July 31 at 3 p.m. ET and the winner of the Olympic qualifying tournament in Puerto Rico on Aug. 3 at 11:15 a.m. ET.
