Listen To The Premiere Episode Of “The Why With Dwyane Wade” Podcast

Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, and Tony Parker sit down with Dwyane Wade for the debut episode of his podcast, “The Why with Dwyane Wade”.

Today, we share highlights from the premiere episode of “The Why with Dwyane Wade” — a new original podcast series hosted by NBA Hall of Famer, three-time NBA Champion, and entrepreneur, Dwyane Wade.

The new series, a co-production of iHeartPodcasts and Wade’s 59th & Prairie Entertainment, kicks off with a two-part episode featuring a candid roundtable conversation with Wade’s fellow Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2023 inductees, Dirk Nowitzki, Tony Parker, and Pau Gasol.

Together, the basketball legends reflect on their time in the league going head-to-head against one another and some of the most memorable games and heated moments both on and off the court, including Dirk and D-Wade revisiting their rocky relationship stemming from the 2006 NBA Finals saying “there wasn’t a lot of love there.”

The guys also look back on their experiences representing their respective countries during the Olympics and FIBA tournaments with Tony Parker calling Dirk the GOAT of all European players and credits Pau Gasol as the main reason why he didn’t win more gold medals and tournament championships in his career.

Later the guys reflect on Kobe Bryant’s career, with each sharing memorable moments from their time playing with and against the Mamba, including Pau Gasol looking back on the Lakers’ 2009 championship run and Tony Parker speaking on the time Kobe learned French to better trash-talk him during games.

–– PART ONE ––

• [17:51] – TONY CALLS DIRK HIS EUROPEAN GOAT; WISHES PAU GASOL WAS NOT BORN

Tony: “My European GOAT is Dirk Nowitzki…then it’s very debatable with Pau because Pau won so much at the European level. Yes, it’s true D, I sometimes wish Pau Gasol was not born. I would’ve won a lot more gold medals and a lot sooner. But to me it’s debatable in what you take into consideration…No disrespect to the older guys but when we all came to the league, that was the first time – with Dirk and Pau – you had NBA franchises starting to believe we can have a European player as our franchise player. And Dirk was the first one to do that. To be the franchise guy…Dirk paved that way for us as Europeans.”

• [21:41] – TONY SAYS LUKA DONCIC IS NO DIRK WHEN DISCUSSING WHO SHOULD BE IN THE CONVERSATION OF EUROPEAN GOAT

Tony: “For me, to be in the conversation, you have to win a championship. That’s just my personal opinion…To me, because I won a championship, if you don’t understand what it takes to win a championship, I don’t think you should be in the debate.”

• [28:19] – TONY ON HIS FAVORITE CHAMPIONSHIP; LOSING TO DWYANE WADE

Tony: “A lot of people always ask me, ‘What’s your favorite championship?’ and I always say 2014. And they’re like ‘Not 2007 when you were MVP?’ and I’m like no, 2014. It’s my favorite because of the way we lost against you guys [the Miami Heat in 2013]. 2013, the way we lost when we were up 5 with 28 seconds. I can see the rope, I can see the trophy coming…I was already thinking about what I was going to do with that trophy…the way that happened so fast with Ray Allen’s shot and you won in game seven.”

• [29:00] – TONY ON ALMOST NOT PLAYING FOR THE 2013 WORLD CUP; FRANCE WINNING THE GOLD MEDAL

Tony: “Man, that summer, it was so long, that summer. It’s funny because I play with the national team every summer and I was still chasing that gold medal because of this guy [Pau]. I still didn’t win a gold medal and in 2013 after losing to you guys [Miami] it was really hard for me to get motivated and to go play for the national team. I told the coach, ‘I don’t think I’m going to play this summer.’ … 48 hours after I was like ‘You know what? No. I’m going to be stronger than that mentally. Everything happens for a reason. I can’t not go.’ So I decided to go and that year we win the gold medal and I was that close to not going that summer. And we win that summer, we won. So [when] I arrive[d] at training camp [for the NBA] and I was so happy because I [had] a gold medal. I go back to the Spurs, they were still thinking about our loss against you guys [Miami in the Finals].”

• [37:49] – DIRK AND DWYANE ADDRESS THEIR PERSONAL ISSUES FOLLOWING THE 2006 NBA FINALS FOR THE FIRST TIME

Dirk: “Well, there wasn’t a lot of love there. I think there were just things said on both sides that weren’t appreciated. I think you took offense when I said we kinda gave them [Miami] the championship. Which I probably would have taken offense too because [you] worked extremely hard. You played your butt off and carried them.”

Dwyane: “I came back swinging in the media.”

Dirk: “…I remember in the next year, I’ve already moved on obviously and some reporter comes up to me and says ‘Hey did you see what Dwyane said?’ And I was like ‘What?’ this was months later. He [the reporter] was like ‘Yeah, you weren’t a finisher, you weren’t a leader.’ And I was like ‘Wow, that came out of nowhere.’ So I didn’t appreciate that of course but now almost 20 years later, I see where both sides were just not happy with how the whole thing went down. But I say this all the time. There can’t always be friendships at the highest level of competition.”

• [39:10] – DIRK AND DWYANE ON NOT SHAKING HANDS AT THE 2007 NBA ALL STAR GAME

Dirk: “I remember in ‘07, the All Star game was in Vegas and I think we were the first two All Stars ever on record to not shake hands pre-game. So there was definitely some cold times.”

Dwyane: “And mind you, we’ve never had a conversation up to this point. We’ve never talked. It shows you the power of the media.”

• [42:40] – DIRK REACTS TO LEBRON AND DWYANE’S FAKE COUGH MOCKING HIM DURING THE 2011 NBA FINALS

Dirk: “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.”

Dwyane: “It was childish.”

Dirk: “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.”

Dwyane: “…in our minds, we [are] in control…so all the talk back to us is ‘Well, Dirk is sick, Dirk’s hand is this,’ …in our mind we were tired of hearing about Dirk. We’re up 2-0, why do y’all keep talking about him being sick? …So it became, I think, bigger. But then once you look at it you’re like alright, that was a childish moment, it was captured on camera that you wish you [could] grab that moment back.”

–– PART TWO ––

• [2:05] – PAU GASOL GETS EMOTIONAL TALKING ABOUT PARTNERSHIP WITH TEAMMATE KOBE BRYANT AND THE IMPORTANCE OF WINNING THE 2009 NBA FINALS

Pau: “It’s a great partnership, great relationship. Kinda two players that got on the same apge and shared some amazing stuff on and off the floor. He’s a unique brother, unique person, unique teammate who definitely took me to another level. [He] showed me what greatness looks like and the seriousness of his approach to the game. This [picture] is a moment of joy after losing the ‘08 Finals against the Celtics. Winning ‘09 was sweet. It was my first championship, it was his first championship without Shaq. It was very meaningful to him. That’s why I was straight to the Lakers to help him and that team do that.”

• [3:35] – TONY ON KOBE BRYANT LEARNING FRENCH TO BETTER TRASH TALK

Tony: “When I got drafted, all the Spurs talked about was how we have to beat the Lakers… because they were on their way to do the three-peat. So my rookie year, we played the Lakers in the semi-finals. I played well in that series – and Kobe spoke Italian, as you know – so he said some stuff but it was like not really good and I said, ‘Maybe don’t even talk French.’ The year after, we played them again in the playoffs and he was talking straight trash to me in French and I was like ‘Man, you learned French that fast!’”

• [18:34] – DWYANE EXPLAINS WHEN HE BECAME THE GO-TO GUY ON THE HEAT AS A ROOKIE

Dwyane: “My rookie year, Eddie Jones was starting two guard, we brought Lamar Odom in from the Clippers – that was the coolest dude in the NBA – and it was his team. We maxed him out and we [were] building around Lamar…so I was just supposed to get those guys the ball and cut through and get out of the way, that’s all Stan [Van Gundy] had me doing. And in the playoffs, game one, he decided to drop a game-winning play and give me the ball. So in my mind I’m like ‘What? What? He’s about to give me the ball with all these guys on the court, you’re going to give it to me?’ I’ve been practicing this my whole life, okay. But after that game the responsibility shift[ed] to: you’re the go-to guy.”…I can’t say I was prepared for it. Like you [Dirk] I was very quiet, I was shy, I wasn’t a leader. But when you do stuff like that, you become the guy, you become the leader and I was like how am I going to tell Eddie Jones and Lamar Odom and those guys what to do?”

• [28:19] – DIRK ON SPURS FANS YELLING AT HIM FROM THE RIVERWALK

Dirk: “I would say the Spurs, I remember that year in ‘06 when we played you guys in game seven. So in the afternoon, I’m laying down for my nap, I just had my pasta, I’m feeling good. All of a sudden– you know we stayed at a Marriott back then right on the RiverWalk. So I’m hearing ‘Go Spurs Go!’ like loud the whole time…so we looked out and all the guys on the boats there had these megaphones and they drove by our hotel and every 10 minutes the guys were yelling ‘Go Spurs Go!’ The entire time so I was like ‘I don’t think we’re going to nap today, this is intense.’”