Most basketball fans consider Dwyane Wade‘s name synonymous with the Miami Heat, where his No. 3 jersey hangs in the rafters. However, not many of them know that Pat Riley was not actually looking to draft Wade in 2003, as he leaned towards picking Chris Kaman.
Riley was looking to address a team need, and Wade did not seem to fit the bill.
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“That year we ended up with No. 5, and I was looking at point guards and centers; that’s what we needed,” admitted the then-Miami head coach and team president. “I had guys like Kirk Hinrich, T.J. Ford and Chris Kaman high on our list, and I was interested in them. Dwyane was on there, but at the start of the process, I wasn’t sure.”
Kaman had the potential to be an elite five in the league. As a junior at Central Michigan, he averaged 22.4 points, 12.0 rebounds and 3.2 blocks on a 62.2 percent shooting clip, which caught Riley’s eye.
“Riley was big on the bigs, and that was Kaman… I know he was interested in Wade, but it was known that his staff had to do some convincing to get him to decide on Wade,” Israel Gutierrez of the Miami Herald noted.
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Pat first saw Wade in action during a Kaman workout
Doing his due diligence as a decision-maker for the Heat organization, Riley scheduled a workout with Kaman. Coincidentally, Kaman and Wade shared a trainer, the legendary Tim Grover. So when Riley and then-Heat General Manager Randy Pfund travelled to Chicago to check out their guy, Wade was there, too.
It wasn’t love at first sight, but it was enough to make an impression.
“We were standing around waiting for him to come out for the workout. And Dwyane was working out at the other end of the gym with Tim Grover,” Pfund recalled. “And Pat turned and said, ‘Who’s that? Who’s that kid down there?’ I said, ‘That’s Wade.’ And he said, ‘Whoa.’ Dwyane was impressive-looking, and that caught Pat’s eye from a distance.”
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That meeting led Riley to learn more about the Marquette University guard. He watched Wade’s 29-point triple-double against Kentucky and appreciated the latter’s control of the game. Five days later, Riley scheduled a workout with Wade in Miami. The three-time Coach of the Year thought it was memorable, but not for a good reason.
“He was very nervous. I remember shaking his hand and thought the only time I ever shook a hand of a rookie that came in that had more sweat on his palm was James Worthy. He couldn’t make a shot,” stated Riley.
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To Riley’s credit, Wade’s rough workout wasn’t enough to sway him off course. He kept an open mind while his staff — especially Pfund — continued to vouch for Wade’s star potential. Pfund believed he had the kind of presence that could reignite buzz in South Beach after an underwhelming 2002-03 campaign, which they finished with only 25 wins.
The final straw
Until the day of the draft, June 26, 2003, Riley had no clue who he would pick. Kaman certainly looked like he could anchor the paint with his scoring and shot-blocking, but Wade’s proponents inside the team also had significant pull.
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To clear the air once and for all, he turned to the man who knew everything about Chris and Dwyane from a basketball standpoint.
“The day of the draft, Pat Riley called me,” Grover remembered. “He said, ‘All right, Tim. Wade or Kaman: Who would you take?’ I had worked with both of them and I was honored he called me to ask my opinion. I was thinking about it, and the 1984 draft flashed in my mind when Portland took Sam Bowie ahead of Michael Jordan.”
“I told them to take Dwyane,” Grover said.
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And just like that, the Heat’s trajectory followed an upward trend for the next decade. Wade was the first in the 2003 draft class to win a championship and a Finals MVP in 2006 at the expense of the Dallas Mavericks. Along with Bosh and LeBron James, he became a pillar of the back-to-back title teams in 2012 and 2013.
What began as a reluctant consideration turned into the defining move of Riley’s Heat tenure. Wade delivered everything Riley could have hoped for, including more. He was so important to the franchise that the Heat’s story simply wouldn’t read the same without him.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 13, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.