Wade looks good, but not tested yet

There has been a lot made of the revival of Dwayne Wade.

The 6-foot-4 Miami Heat guard has played in the Olympics and looked every bit the part of the player who was an NBA finals MVP in 2006. He’s been athletic. He’s played defense. He’s driven to the hoop. He’s dunked. When he’s not dunking, he’s hitting mid-range jumpers or getting fouled. He’s looked like the old Dwayne Wade.

If anything, it’s been so long since the old D. Wade has been in display that a lot of us forgot what he looked like. Then this lightening quick, muscular shooting guard with a clean-shaven dome shows up looking unstoppable against international competition and word goes out Wade is back.

He might be, but there still another hurdle to cross to say that he’s, indeed, back. It’s obvious he’s healthy for the first time in two years. But what he’s doing, he’s doing against international competition, which unlike other sports is a step down in competition from the US.

Most of these players that play for these Olympic teams are nothing more than reserves in the NBA. Most of these games that the US is playing in the Olympics, the other guys are so severely overmatched that it’s difficult for them to guard Wade seriously.

Wade won’t truly be tested until he steps on the court for the Miami Heat in an NBA game. Any one of the championship contenders in the NBA is capable of winning the gold medal at the Olympics and in the NBA, players don’t care as much about sportsmanship. Money is on the line, something more motivating that pride.

When Wade drives the lane in the NBA, he’s going to get hit. At times they’ll be players in the game whose sole purpose is to lay the wood to Wade. In the Olympics, taking out Wade doesn’t improve a team’s chances of winning. They’ll just bring in Kobe back in.

In the NBA, taking out Wade means taking out Miami’s chance at winning. It’s going to be the easiest path to victory over the Heat next season. He hasn’t held up in the past. Teams are going to test whether or not he can take the pounding.

Sure, he’s healthy now, but he’s going to get beat up.

One thing has become clear in Olympic basketball. The Americans are as dominant on the world stage as they’ve ever been. What happened in 2004 was an aberration. There were too many superstars and at that time there was no prestige attached to the Olympics. If a superstar is going to spend his summer overseas playing with the Olympic team, he wants to play. All we heard about last time was about the superstars that were sitting the bench and how much that affected the team’s chemistry.

The best move the USA basketball committee did was filling out the roster with specialists. Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer and Michael Redd might want to complain about not playing, but to say they should be playing over Lebron, Kobe, D.Wade or Chris Paul is an argument with no legs.