Dwyane Wade Has Been Dirty for Years, We Just Haven't Been Paying Attention

As disturbing as Wade’s cheap shots is the willingness of the NBA to look the other way. We all know the league treats stars differently, but should they be untouchables? If you need further evidence, LeBron James recently went two weeks without having a foul called on him.

For the first time in Wade’s career, he is facing a backlash for dirty play. Here’s a brief collection of his work:

Wade would have drawn a flag in the NFL on this one. He makes no attempt to play the ball, his sole purpose is to take out Collison. If you watch the replay, the foul is an act of frustration after he didn’t get a call on the other end.

Here, Wade closely guards Rip Hamilton, who extends his elbow to create space. Wade responds by shoving him.

Everyone who has seriously competed in athletics knows that there’s always a moment before impact where you have the opportunity to pull up on your opponent or take a shot at them while they are vulnerable. As with most of his bush league moves, Wade gives himself plausible deniability.

The list goes on and on, Wade broke Kobe’s nose at the All Star game last year, threw Mike Bibby’s shoe off the court and took a cheap shot at Kevin Garnett that resulted in a flagrant foul.

Hopefully Wade will use his time off to reevaluate his recent actions on the court and come back as the entertaining and classy player we all believed he once was.