It was the fake cough heard around the world. 13 years later, Dirk Nowitzki told Dwyane Wade to his face that he didn’t appreciate it. To be fair, D-Wade has the gift of hindsight to admit that was not his proudest moment. The two rivals laid it all out when Wade invited his fellow Hall-of-Famers from the class of 2023 to the premiere episode of his podcast, Pantheon. Since they were at the roundtable with mics and cameras, they had to hash out one sore point in their friendship.

Though they kept it lighthearted throughout the premiere episode of Pantheon, the Dunking Deutschman admitted that he was embittered by the controversy. “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.” 

Wade did agree it was childish as Nowitzki continued, “I think I said it at one of the press conferences but at the end of the day, that didn’t add to the motivation. Honestly, at this point, we’re 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.”

Wade had reminded Nowitzki with an image of himself and LeBron James. Yes, that photograph. In 2011, the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat were tied 2-2 in the NBA finals. Nowitzki had played Game 4 with flu-like symptoms. Reports then said he even had a fever of 101. While leaving the locker room, Wade and James were captured doing fake cough gestures, apparently mocking Dirk. “How childish was that moment?” D-Wade said on Pantheon.

Despite being sick, Dirk was dominant with 21 points in the game. He didn’t find out about the coughing incident until later and didn’t let it get to him. He’d go on to lead the Mavericks to their first NBA championship.

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Dwyane Wade’s side of the story

While Dwyane Wade is extremely remorseful about the incident, he provided context to explain that the incident was blown out of proportion. “It was kind of one of those things that happened. You don’t know what it’s going to become. I remember walking down the hallway and we were coming out of shoot around,” The Flash recalled, adding that everyone was only talking about an ill Nowitzki’s dominant game.

“In the moment, being young and having one of those moments, [James] was like, ‘Oh, he’s sick,’ and did a fake cough. Boom, it went everywhere, you know what I mean? In our minds, we were tired of it. We were like, ‘We’re up two, why are you still talking about him being sick or his hand?'” Wade would admit that he and James didn’t expect it to get that big.

They were, however, able to joke it out on the podcast and makeup. Still, what do you think about Wade’s response?

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