Nearly a month after signing with Chicago, Dwyane Wade was officially introduced to the media on Friday (July 29) as a member of the Bulls.
One of his first moves as a Bull, the NBA star made it clear that Jimmy Butler is the star in Chicago, not him. "This is Jimmy's team," he said. "It won't be a tug and pull whose team it is."
Wade went on to recall Shaquille O'Neal's move to Miami in 2004, during which Big Shaq made a similar statement. "We had no championships at the time, and I remember his press conference," Wade said. "I was playing in the Olympics at the time, like Jimmy is right now. And I remember Shaq said: 'We're not going to go through this all year. This is Dwyane Wade's team.'
"So, we're not going to go through this all year. This is Jimmy Butler's team. Myself and Rondo are here to bring what we bring as athletes to this team and to this city. He's the young Bull on this team. He's a 26-year-old who can play 40 minutes if coach wants him to and maybe more. I ain't trying to do all that. And we're going to depend on him a lot."
Also, Wade expressed his excitement about returning home to his hometown of Chicago for the first time in his NBA career.
"I'm thankful to be here today," Wade said. "This is one of those moments that is a dream come true. Simply that. I'm a Chicago guy, a Chicago kid. I remember sitting on the floor and watching the Chicago Bulls win their first title. I was 9 years old, watching on an itty bitty tv, and I said, 'That's what I want to do, that's who I want to be.'
"My dream of being an NBA player started here in my hometown. Took a long time to get here, but I'm here."
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