Wade’s Off-Season Workout for Speed, Strength and Power

Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade continues to add new basketball skills and elements of athleticism to his All-Star game each off-season. Whether the goal is perfecting a teardrop runner or adding endurance and explosion, Dwyane relies on Tim Grover of ATTACK Athletics to keep his arsenal expanding.

“His game has developed so much,” Grover says. “He’s really dedicated himself to [taking] care of his body, knowing how important it is with the injuries he’s had and returning to play at such a high level. As skilled as he is, he’s willing to try new stuff out on the basketball court. No matter how awkward or unprepared he is with it, he’s going to give it a try until he’s comfortable with it.”

Dwyane is known as a hard worker within ATTACK’s walls—and throughout the NBA for that matter—but working hard is only half the battle; the other half is working smart. “I don’t know his methods,” Dwyane laughingly says about Grover. “I just know that I have unbelievable trust and faith in the things he tells me to do. And every year, my training has been different; it’s what I need that year, what I need to get strong and what I need to concentrate on…I made sure that I dedicated myself to him—not only on the court, but probably in the weight room more so.”

Dwyane’s off-season workouts at ATTACK cover the full gamut, from skills to strength to injury prevention. Step one is a lengthy on-court skills and conditioning session, and step two is a rapid-fire workout in the weight room. “We always start on the court to get shots going and to get into a rhythm,” Dwyane says. “You do a lot of things that you do in the games; then you also try new things. Whether it’s something [I] want to work on or things Tim wants me to work on, [it’s] so I can get comfortable with all kinds of different moves. Then we take it into the weight room, which right now is probably the most important part. We do a lot of things that focus on my explosiveness and agility and power in the mix of a 30-minute workout, a very tough 30-minute workout.”

During those 30 minutes, Grover puts Dwyane through supersets designed to improve flexibility in his hips, increase lateral and vertical explosion, and strengthen his shoulders to improve play above the rim. “The [supersets] are a combination of explosive movements timed with endurance movements,” Grover explains. “There are times in basketball when Dwyane’s just jogging back and forth, and then he has to do an explosive movement, then he slows down again.”

1. On-Court Skills and Conditioning, 1 set, 45 minutes
2a. Alternate Single-Leg Hamstring Curl, 2-3 sets, 10-15 each leg
2b. Power Plate Glute Bridge, 2-3 sets, 30 seconds
3a. Depth Box Jump, 3 sets, 1-6
3b. Slideboard Dynamic Hip/Glute Stretch, 3 sets, 20-30 each leg
4a. Alternate Explosive Leg Press, 3 sets, 15 each leg
4b. Slideboard Jackknife with Abduction, 3 sets, 10
5. PPT Band Ankle Circuit, 2 sets, 30-100 each movement, each leg

Early Morning Workout with Lebron

Lebron and I had an early morning workout on South Beach. It was intense! Check out the photos.

Dwyane Wade submits to Gatorade tests

BRADENTON, Fla. — Dwyane Wade’s body is spent. He’s in absolute agony. He’s gritting his teeth and taking huge gasps of air as the clock is ticking down, all while people surround and implore him to keep going all the way to the finish.

This isn’t a 48-minute NBA game watched by thousands of fans.

It’s a 30-second stationary bike ride watched by a few scientists.

“If there’s an edge that we can find,” Wade said afterward, “I want to find it.”

So he went looking for it at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, becoming the first athlete tested at the company’s new lab on the campus of IMG Academies in southwest Florida.

For the better part of a day, Wade went through a battery of tests. Some were typical, such as blood work. Some were not particularly taxing, such as when he simply lay still for a few minutes while a machine scanned his body to determine its composition. Some were arduous, as with the treadmill that could show how quickly he burns through carbohydrates while exercising, and that diabolical, high-resistance exercise bike.

“Just trying to get myself that edge, so I don’t have to deal with that as much. Hydration is so important, so huge, especially with me. I lose five pounds after each game.” – Dwyane Wade

Take the data, add it up, and an already elite player for the Miami Heat might be able to get a little bit better.

“It’s kind of exciting,” said Dr. JohnEric Smith, the associate principal scientist at the lab who monitored Wade’s tests. “My research focus has always kind of been on wanting to know what are the limits of human performance. And having access to athletes like a Dwyane Wade, who’s already on top of his sport. and try to identify ways to make him a little better, that’s exciting to me.”

In basic terms, the institute takes its studies on the effects of exercise and nutrition and tries to turn those findings into better products. More labs are planned to open internationally in the coming months.

For everyday people, subtle changes to a sports-drink formula may not necessarily have much of an effect.

But for Wade and athletes of his ilk, that’s not the case.

One of the tests — Wade running on a treadmill, breathing through high-tech headgear — showed he burns through carbohydrates faster than most athletes. By adjusting what he eats and drinks a bit on game day, just based on that one finding, Wade very easily could find himself able to be more effective in the closing minutes of games.

“If it makes me 1 percent better, it makes me a better player,” Wade said.

One thing scientists came away from Wade’s testing particularly pleased with was that he was willing to do whatever they suggested.

And some of it, well, made Wade look just a little silly.

Here’s the scene: He’s facing the wall, palms out, looking at what’s called a DynaVision Training Device. He had to keep his eyes fixed on the center of the device, which was about 3 feet wide and 3 feet high. A small screen would generate a four-digit number every few seconds, and Wade would have to call it out at the same time he tapped whichever of dozens of lights that would randomly turn red.

The first time, Wade didn’t do as well as he liked.

The second time, he saw his score and raised his arms in celebration.

“It’s come a long way,” said Dr. Asker Jeukendrup, the global senior director of Illinois-based GSSI, when asked how research into athletic performance is evolving. “Where the big advances will be is in how we actually educate the athletes. Products will develop, but what really needs to happen is the education.”

Wade went to the testing with specific requests.

Like any athlete, he’s always looking for more endurance. But he’s also been prone to cramping, no matter how much he drinks on game days or replenishes during workouts or games. He hopes his trip to the lab, where sports nutrition, as well as hydration, is studied, leads to better answers.

“Just trying to get myself that edge, so I don’t have to deal with that as much,” Wade said. “Hydration is so important, so huge, especially with me. I lose five pounds after each game. Just trying to get that competitive edge that I need, especially as I get older, you can’t rely on your youth as much, so you keep trying to find that something.”

He came away from the five hours or so of work convinced that the testing was worthwhile. Wade has tried to stay as close to game shape as he can during the NBA lockout, simply because no one knows when the call will come to announce that it’s time to head to training camp with a new labor deal.

On this particular day, Glen Davis of the Boston Celtics also was training at IMG, albeit in a different area than the GSSI lab. Davis popped into the testing briefly and chatted with Wade for a bit, but collected no secrets about what the 2006 NBA Finals MVP was trying to learn about himself.

For that matter, no one else will get those secrets, either. Wade said it was humbling to be the first athlete to go through the new lab, and can’t wait to put the newfound knowledge to use.

“At first, you don’t want it out. At first, if you do find something that can help you and give you an edge, you want to keep that edge,” Wade said. “And then eventually, you pass it on. It might get passed on to a close friend, a teammate. And then if it’s something that’s game-changing, then you pass it on to everyone else. But before I say anything, I want to make sure it works for me.”

For a Basketball Star, Fitness Calls for Pilates

Yoga, Pilates, pedicures. They don’t sound like the workout routine of a pro-basketball player. But Dwyane Wade, the superstar shooting guard with the Miami Heat, has embraced them.

During last year’s lockout, players couldn’t get access to NBA team facilities or trainers. “The lockout meant I was working out with a different trainer,” says Mr. Wade, “and he introduced me to different types of workouts that I didn’t even know my body needed, like yoga.”

The Workout

“I have tight hips and I felt I needed to loosen up and be more flexible as I got older,” says Mr. Wade. He started taking private yoga lessons. “Just basic yoga—I wasn’t ready for the hot stuff,” he says. “Yoga is a totally different way of stretching and really challenging.” Mr. Wade says he persuaded his teammate, LeBron James, to join him. “He’s stiffer than me,” he jokes.

Mr. James, in turn, persuaded Mr. Wade to try machine-based Pilates, which lengthens muscles and strengthens the core muscles. “I really felt the Pilates loosen up my muscles,” says Mr. Wade. The attention to stretching has paid off during the season. “I recall making a move, and the basketball ended up on my foot and I almost did a split on the ball. Normally, that’s a groin pull, but I bounced back.”

Mr. Wade also started running on the beach this summer. “Running on the sand strengthens your quads and calf muscles,” he says. He adds that he used to avoid running because it gave him shin splints, but running barefoot in the sand has helped him avoid that. He does some runs for distance, others for speed. “I try to do a lot of quick sprints where I’m starting and stopping and training myself to push through fatigue,” he says.Mr. Wade has also worked on his fast-twitch muscles, which come into play for brief bursts of strength or speed. To do this, his trainer had him work out with elastic bands on his wrists and ankles. He throws a medicine ball, turns, and then catches the ball with his torso facing one way and his arms turning another. “In a game, you never know what is going to come at you. I have to be ready to react quickly.”

The Diet

Mr. Wade says he always avoided vegetables until he turned 30. “I hated all of them,” he says. But “I knew it would help me in the long run both mentally and physically” to start eating them. His solution was to have his personal chef turn them into juice.

He now starts the day with a juice that might include celery, carrots and beets. His chef sticks to healthy, low-fat, high-protein meals that often include grilled chicken and rice. He doesn’t splurge often, but when he does he has a burger, fries and a Coke. “That is heaven to me. I have a favorite burger spot in nearly every city. Sometimes I might even order two.”

Least Favorite Yoga Exercise

“I struggle with tree pose,” he says, referring to a yoga pose in which he balances on one foot, while the other leg is bent with the foot pressed into the standing leg. “I feel so discombobulated when I do that pose,” he says. “My balance is all off. I definitely don’t feel the athleticism I normally do when I try to do that pose.”

Playlist

“I’m not the type of person who has just one playlist. I’m kind of all over the place and when I run on the beach I put on whatever music speaks to me at that moment. Sometimes I’m feeling Jay-Z, Kanye [West], R. Kelly, some Whitney [Houston] or Mariah Carey. Last year I was listening to a lot of Cee Lo Green.”

Pedicures: Putting Your Feet First

Miami Heat basketball player Dwyane Wade has regular pedicures. But you won’t find him at a salon getting his toenails painted. Cedric Bryant, the chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise, says Mr. Wade and many athletes get what’s called a sports pedicure. “Your feet are vitally important, particularly in sports like basketball where you have a lot of impact stress from jumping and landing and a lot of torsional stress from the side-to-side movement that goes along with guarding players.”

A sports pedicure, says Mr. Bryant, consists of soaking each foot in a warm Epsom-salt bath, applying foot cream, massaging the feet and lower legs, clipping the toenails and exfoliating dead skin from the soles of the feet.

“Regular sports pedicures reduce the development of blisters and calluses,” says Mr. Bryant. “And the massaging can help with muscle soreness.”

Mr. Bryant says wearing sports-specific socks will also help keep feet healthy. “Certain types of socks are designed to have a wicking effect to keep feet free of moisture and reduce the tendency toward developing blisters,” he says.

John Wooden, the late, great UCLA basketball coach, was known to show his new recruits the right way to put on their socks and tie their shoes, Mr. Bryant says. “His practices were so intense he didn’t want them to use blisters as an excuse.”

Uptown: The Heat is On

Dwyane Wade rebuilds his personal and professional life.

For three months during the NBA off-season, Dwyane Wade returns to his hometown Chicago, to recharge his batteries and step out of the spotlight. The king of Miami happily trades signing autographs on South Beach for lounging on a plush couch in the TV room of his River West townhouse.

Yes, townhouse.

The 28-year-old, who has earned the affectionate nickname Flash and once owned a 9,000-square-foot mansion in a tiny Miami suburb, lives in a lovely yet modest row house (even though he reportedly earned $15 million last year). It is here that we catch up with the All-Star baller…

On His Chicago Home:
“I don’t need something too big. I’m in Miami most of the time. And I fell in love with [this property] once I was able to put my own personality into the house,” says Wade. “Every time I walk in my door, [I am reminded of] the journey that it took to get here and the hard work that I have to put in to continue to stay here.”

On Deciding to Stay With Miami:
“I grew up a Bulls fan and, you know, the whole story about this being a hometown kid coming back – it would have all been perfect. It would have been a great ending to an already good book, but it didn’t happen,” says Wade on his decision to turn down an offer in Chicago. “Miami has become my home away from home…The [Miami fans] have embraced me since day one. I can’t ask for anything more. I’m happy.”

On Relationship With Gabrielle Union:
“I found someone I have a great relationship with and that was the most important thing. You have to like the person you’re around before you can say you love them,” Wade says. “That’s the biggest thing right now; we want to make sure that we stay liking each other.”

On the Infidelity Rumors:
“They say I took the high road,” says Wade. “Unfortunately, it took turns but I tried to stay on my path…I think what determines a man is how he acts in the bad times.”

Esquire: How to Dress Like You’re Dwyane Wade

We’d like to take full credit for what Dwyane Wade wore for our styling new profile in the December issue (which you can pick up any day now), but the truth is, Wade was more than capable of helping himself. The man knows what he looks good in, and more than that, he actually cares about clothes. (Case in point: Gucci, which makes the camel-hair coat you see above, has Wade’s credit-card number on file.) Wade brought his own shoes to the shoot on the streets of Miami — two suitcases of ‘em, in fact, and not necessarily the ones you’d expect (he prefers monk straps and boots to sneakers). And unlike many men his size, Wade is also particularly conscious of how his clothes fit. He knows he has a somewhat unusual body shape (tiny waist, athletic legs), another reason most of his clothes are custom-made by his favorite houses, a service they’re happy to provide. Of course, not everyone is so lucky. Which is why, for the sake of men with tall statures but maybe slightly fewer zeros behind their bank balance, we thought we’d offer some tips on looking good in a longer fit:

If you can, stay away from the rack. Custom clothes will fit the proportions of your body better. If this means having fewer pieces that work better with your body, so be it.

Go for tall, not big. Many companies offer tall sizing now, including Banana Republic and J.Crew, but unfortunately it’s only through their catalogs. The fit might not be right the first time you try it, but trust us, it’s better than going the way of Big and Tall. Plus, they have generous return policies.

Stretch it a bit. There’s extra fabric in the hems of both the jackets and pants of most off-the-peg garments. If all you need is a little more length, a tailor can usually sort you out.

Avoid white shoes. They are tempting, we’ll agree, and even more so come spring, but they’ll also make you look bigger than you actually are. Instead, try a taupe or dove gray (also big next spring), and if you really insist on white, make it something with a low profile, like a crème deerskin driving moccasin, perhaps.

Esquire: Dwyane Wade – Of the Holy Trinity, Which One Is He?

Never has a team been so engineered for dominance as this year’s Miami Heat. Chris Bosh left Toronto for a ring, joined by that guy from Cleveland. But this is the man they came to play with, and who’ll show them how it’s done.

It is media day for the Miami Heat, the team at the center of the NBA universe. Soon every day will be Media Day for the Heat; never will an NBA season, which has long been an eighty-two-game warm-up for the NBA playoffs, feel so long. This summer, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors, both free agents, decided to join forces with the Heat’s Dwyane Wade to create a team of such ineffable puissance that oddsmakers already have installed them as heavy favorites to win it all, while sundry pundits are predicting that they’ll break the regular-season record of seventy-two wins currently held by Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. It is, no doubt, the greatest basketball team in history never to have played a single game. In an hour, Dwyane Wade will be in uniform, sitting at a microphone flanked by Bosh and James as three hundred or so reporters and cameramen gather for a press conference. He sits center stage because, at twenty-eight, Wade’s still the Man, still the face of the franchise he led, helped hugely by Shaquille O’Neal, to an NBA championship in 2006. But today’s press conference — a clusterfuck without precedent for Miami, no NBA hotbed — will mainly be about LeBron, who will furrow his brow, stroke his chin, and look puzzled and unhappy as questioner after questioner asks him how it feels to go from hero to shitheel.

Later today, Wade and the Heat will head to an Air Force base six hundred miles away, where Pat Riley, the team’s president, decided to hold training camp in an apparent effort both to keep his team cloistered and to instill a more ascetic sense of mission than that provided by the Heat’s traditional post-practice South Beach excursions.

And in a few days — only three minutes into Miami’s preseason opener — Dwyane Wade will tweak a hamstring, leave the floor, and give journalists all the reason they’ll need to start talking about how the Heat is now LeBron’s team.

Right now, though, Wade’s sitting in a black T-shirt with NERD in big white block letters on the chest, talking with Esquire about his journey from the South Side of Chicago to fame, fortune, and scarfing shrimp on the White House lawn:

I have no idea. I’m a junior — I got that name from my father. I asked him — my grandma said that’s how she felt it was spelled. There you go.

“We’ll be the Yankees of basketball. It’s already true — a love/hate thing, but you know what? We’re fine with that.”

My freshman year, I was academically ineligible — I didn’t pass my ACT. But I was able to practice with the team. This one day, the ball swung to me in the corner. I took it to the baseline and Jon Harris came to take a charge, and I just took off over the top of him. As I’m taking off, he’s trying to fall back, and I just go over the top of him and dunk.

I mean, I surprised myself. Everybody in the gym was like, Holy shit! It was one of those moments where everybody stopped. They couldn’t believe it. It was in the school paper the next day, it was talked about all over campus, and what it did was just make everybody continue to keep my name in their minds for next season when I’d take that court.

“This team has a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of teams out there — L. A., Orlando, Boston— that are better than the Miami Heat right now.”

A lot of the stuff you do in games, you can’t practice it. You can practice your jump shot, you can practice your ball handling, but you can’t practice some of the moves and the things you do in games. It just comes at that moment — it’s God-given.

I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do none of that. No tattoos.

When you get to college, you’re finally on your own, and you feel like, I’m a man now, I can make my own decisions. When I was growing up, we couldn’t wear earrings, couldn’t wear hats, and my father said, “No tattoos.” So I started wearing hats, I got my ears pierced, and I said, “I’m gonna go to the tattoo parlor.” I walked in there and I walked right out. It just wasn’t me. And I knew it wasn’t me. It would’ve been forced. I would’ve been being like other people and not myself.

The thing about fame or celebrity is that there’s not a book to show you how to do things. You’ve got to learn on the fly, and you’ve got to feel your personality — how much you can deal with, how much you can’t deal with — and try to make it work. You’ve got to take the arrows that come with it and just try to be the best person you can be.

One thing Shaq did for me when he came was give me knowledge that I needed. I was still a shy kid, and he pretty much told me to open up. He said, “Let your creativity be seen, put your fingerprints on the things that you’re doing.” It opened up so many more business opportunities for me.

Anybody can say what they want to about Shaq, but he’s a great businessman, a very smart man.

We love to play this game — we would play this game for free — but we have an unbelievable opportunity to do more. Guys are brands and guys are part of big brands. You have to look at yourself as a brand, no question about it.

No one said success in life is easy. If it was, everybody would be successful, and success wouldn’t be a big thing. I know I got a great opportunity and I cherish it.

My time in Miami will come and go. There’s going to be another guy come in, but that fan stays the same. There’s going to be fans in the arena now watching me who’re going to be here thirty years from now watching someone else.

If I come back, in my next life I’d like to be a trust-fund baby, where my parents made a lot of money and I could just fly under the radar.

We’ll be the Yankees of basketball. It’s already true — a love/hate thing, but you know what? We’re fine with that. We understand that we did something we wanted to do. As an individual, you don’t get an opportunity to do that often in this game. That’s what it came down to with us — myself and Chris and LeBron — we all felt for the first time we were able to control our own destiny.

It’s weird, really, because I haven’t felt it yet. I haven’t been on the court with those guys yet in battle. The only thing I can go off of is that when Shaq was here, I was on the court and I said, “I got Shaq.” It changes the game — the game is totally different. Right now I haven’t felt it yet.

This team has a lot of work to do. I don’t look at the individual players right now and say, “Oh, my God, this is amazing.” I say, “This team, we got a lot of work to do, because there’s a lot of teams out there — L. A., Orlando, Boston, and so on — that are better teams than the Miami Heat right now. So how do we get to their page fast, like, now?” I look at this team and I’m proud of it, I’m happy, but once tomorrow starts, we got to get to practice. We got to get to work.

It’s hard, what I was doing the last couple years, trying to score forty a night, trying to lead us. It’s hard on your body. So let these guys take me to the mountaintop, and I’ll ride the wave.

The way I was raised, getting married early, having a kid early — all that set me up to be in this position where I have guys who look to me as the older guy. And I am that — I can be that for them. I do have a championship I was blessed to be able to win. I know how it looks, so now I’m able to pass that knowledge on to guys that haven’t won it yet, that haven’t done it. So this is a great opportunity for all of us.

“My time in Miami will come and go. There’s going to be another guy come in, but that fan stays the same.”

Getting invited to the White House is unbelievable. All these friends — LeBron, Chris Paul, Magic Johnson, Alonzo, Carmelo, Bill Russell — the basketball was unbelievable. But the best thing was when we went back to the White House on the lawn, and it was like a big picnic, everyone sitting out there, talking, Luther Vandross playing in the background. It was just a great vibe.

It was a reflective moment. You look around and say, Not only is this something I’ve never dreamed of, but it makes you want to strive to be better. I just felt at that moment, I want to do more, because I like this. I want to feel this again, how it felt to be there amongst a lot of greats.

You have those moments where you reflect. Wherever you’re at — driving the car, in the plane, wherever — and you say, “No matter what I’m going through in life at the moment, from where I came from to where I am now, you know what? Life ain’t bad.”

Forbes: The Best-Dressed Athletes

From Tom Brady to Dwyane Wade, these sports stars are at the top of the fashion game.

Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, shocked sports fans on Nov. 30 with the announcement of his latest endorsement deal: a fashion company. Brady, a three-time Super Bowl champion who is married to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen, is the new face of UGG Australia, a lifestyle brand best known for its girly sheepskin boots.

Critics whined about the “Giselification” of the quarterback, pointing also to his newly long hair and a recent GQ photo shoot as evidence of some sort of personality change. But Brady’s embrace of the fashion world is hardly a result of his marriage: It’s all business. From the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade–who loves Gucci and Louis Vuitton–to British soccer star David Beckham–who is reportedly designing a menswear line–athletes are embracing fashion more enthusiastically than ever.

“[Today], it is less shocking to see a burly jock of a man in a three-piece suit or designer jeans,” says Nic Screws, fashion market editor at men’s lifestyle magazine Esquire. “Now athletes are trendsetters and icons in their own right–beyond the court or field.”

Wade favors classic, well-tailored suits (from Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Gucci, which has his credit card on file) and colorful, bold accessories like ties and pocket squares; he dresses with panache but not flash. He has doled out fashion advice to Men’s Fitness readers, and once stopped to fix Philadelphia Coach Eddie Jordan’s tie during a game between the Heat and the 76′ers. Does not shy away from lavender, bright yellow, mixing patterns, thick-framed glasses or bow ties.

Forbes’ list of the best-dressed athletes includes–in addition to Wade, Brady and Beckham–a linebacker who designs a line of bow ties (Dhani Joanes of the Cincinnati Bengals), an equestrian who happens to be the daughter of Princess Carolina of Monaco and is sponsored by Gucci (Charlotte Casiraghi), and a hockey player who once interned at Vogue (Sean Avery of the New York Rangers). Their styles range from polished and preppy (tennis player Roger Federer) to full-blown eccentric (former boxer Chris Eubanks wears jodhpurs and bowler hats, and used to sport a monocle). Many of them are designers on the side, including Beckham, Eubanks and tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams.

Why the sudden surge in stylish athletes? One reason: corporate sponsorships. Sure, fashion and sports have a long history, says Screws. “But [their relationship] has grown over the years with big name brands stepping up and sponsoring or linking with sports stars for marketing purposes.” Designers are catching on too, with brands like Joseph Abboud regularly dressing the New York Giants. “We’re talking the offensive line,” says Screws, “big men–happily dressed and well-fitted men.”

Another reason? A return to classic style. “The ’80s and ’90s were a low point for sports style,” says Jon Patrick, who has worked in the menswear industry for 20 years, and edits a style blog called The Selvedge Yard. “Players wore over-the-top six-button suits, big jewelry. It was very gangster, not in good taste. As the economy has changed, people’s values have changed, and you see this movement toward preppy, heritage brands and well-tailored classics.” NBA players like Wade and his Heat teammate LeBron James love their preppy cardigans, and golfer Luke Donald’s Ralph Lauren ( RL – news – people ) plaid pants sure attract a lot of attention on the green.

As for the “Giselification” of Brady, Screws scoffs, “Pre-Gisele Brady was still aware. He still had a relationship with [tailors] Ermenegildo Zegna and Tom Ford. He still let people dress him up and lead him to designer things.”

“It comes off as jealousy to me,” she adds. “Like he’s the visual reminder of someone having it all. Money, talent, hot wife, championships, good hair, nice clothes.” Those are all big reasons why sports stars fall into fashion, she notes. “Because they can.

L.A. Times: MVPs Off the Court

Fashion pros are helping NBA players raise their style game.

In 2010, a month before he took to the basketball court for the first time in a New York Knicks uniform, Amare Stoudemire took to the red carpet at Lincoln Center in head-to-toe Tom Ford. In 2009, when NBA No. 1 draft pick Blake Griffin was chosen by the Clippers, he was wearing a custom suit, a purple necktie and eye-catching pocket square from L.A. tailor Waraire Boswell. And sometime during this year’s playoffs, there’s a decent chance the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade will be photographed sporting a diamond lapel pin from Jason of Beverly Hills.

The National Basketball Assn. has had its share of style-savvy players — and even coaches (paging Pat Riley). But it wasn’t so long ago that the biggest fashion statement on court or off was Dennis Rodman dying his hair the colors of a fruit bowl and Shaquille O’Neal wearing baggy suits — definitely a mixed bag.

Think about it: It can be hard to find the right clothes when you’re somewhere around the NBA average of 6 foot 7.

But today — witness Stoudemire, Griffin and Wade — even the tallest players sport a trim and tailored look. Having a personal stylist is de rigueur. Nattily attired, high-profile players grace the covers of glossy style magazines and sit front row at fashion shows next to Vogue’s Anna Wintour.

The athletes’ fashion side projects and brand endorsements have become so common that the league’s acronym might as well be “National Bespoke Assn.” And it’s not just about court shoes anymore. The Celtics’ Jermaine O’Neal recently launched a menswear label dubbed Le Jaunty. Stoudemire is collaborating with designer Rachel Roy on a collection for women (spotlighted by Women’s Wear Daily last week). And the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant has partnered with Nubeo on a line of ungodly expensive watches.

It’s hard to reconcile the wardrobe of today’s hardwood warriors with the laissez-faire look of the league circa 2005, when the NBA felt compelled to institute an official dress code.

“The dress code was part of a larger discussion about the business of basketball, the players’ role in it and projecting a positive image,” said Michael Bantom, senior vice president of player development for the NBA. “It was something that teams had dealt with on an individual basis. Some teams had their own dress codes, others didn’t.”

But as of the 2005-06 season, off-court players engaged in team or league business were required to wear collared dress shirts or turtlenecks, dress slacks, khakis or dress jeans with “appropriate shoes and socks.” Players at games but not in uniform were additionally required to wear a sport coat, dress socks and dress shoes or boots. T-shirts, sports jerseys, shorts, headphones, sunglasses worn indoors or headgear of any kind were prohibited while a player was on team or league business.

Many observers — including Bantom — see that as the first ripple in what would eventually become a change in the way professional basketball players approached their clothing choices.

“True to their competitive nature, once they started dressing up — and seeing how good they looked — they started competing with each other to see who could dress the best,” Bantom said. “The evidence of that can be seen in their interest in fashion and the exposure they’re now getting because of the way they’re dressing.”

That meant players were no longer simply satisfied with the convenience of one-stop custom clothiers such as Élevée in Van Nuys, which in 2005 laid claim to half of the NBA’s players as clients. Stephon Marbury once placed an order for 82 suits — one for each regular season game — and longtime customer Shaquille O’Neal was known to order 52 shirts and 20 pairs of trousers at a clip.

But after the dress code was implemented, some pro ballers took a page from the music and movie industry celebrity playbook and began to engage the services of personal stylists.

“Before the league changed the rules, it was pretty simple,” said Paige Geran, a stylist who has worked with Kobe Bryant for the last year and a half. “The guys would just wear suits for every game so they’d just buy them in bulk.”

After the rule change, “the more savvy guys — the Kobes, the LeBrons [James] and the D-Wades — they started turning to stylists because they enjoy fashion and wanted to look a little more unique. A stylist can bring a lot to the table for them — they’re getting to wear stuff that a man who is 6 foot 3 can wear.”

Geran’s comment underscores a crucial point: buying off-the-rack clothes — especially dress shirts and tailored suits — isn’t an option for most players. And when a guy’s workaday uniform is, in fact, a uniform, there is all the more reason to kick things up a notch.

The sartorial sea change led to recognition not only in men’s style bibles GQ and Esquire, but also in sports media. ESPN the Magazine’s first dedicated fashion issue hit newsstands in March with the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose on the cover. The month before, Sports Illustrated published the results of a poll of 137 NBA players, asking which of their basketball brethren had the best fashion sense off the court. The Miami Heat’s Wade took top honors as an all-star of style, followed by Bryant in second place and Wade’s teammate James in third. Fifteen players made the list, including New York’s Carmelo Anthony in fifth, Stoudemire (13th), and Laker Derek Fisher (14th).

Wade is a “Gucci-Ralph Lauren guy,” says L.A.-based stylist Calyann Barnett, who has worked with Wade since 2007 and recently added Laker Lamar Odom to her roster. “Those companies make shoes, jackets and sweaters that will fit him right off the rack.”

Bryant gets everything custom made, according to his stylist, Geran. “I’ve even got some companies that don’t do made-to-measure but will do it for him,” she says.

Bryant’s body lends itself to the suit silhouette. “He has broad shoulders and a narrow chest — kind of a runway look,” Geran explains. Made-to-measure Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana are current favorites. For custom dress shirts, Geran swears by Anto of Beverly Hills; for knits, she turns to John Varvatos; and for dress shoes, it’s Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Both stylists point out that custom-made George Esquivel shoes and Tom Ford suits and accessories have found favor throughout the league.

Just as with other celebrities, sometimes designer merchandise is made available to the athletes for free, for the publicity value when a high-profile player is seen at a major event. But “it really would depend on the athlete and what he is attending, just like a celebrity,” Geran said. “In my opinion, most of the stuff that people are trying to give for free are things I don’t want. A lot of the free stuff that people supposedly get is a myth to me. It’s not a ton of ‘good’ stuff. It’s things here and there. Discounts, yes. Good free stuff, not really.”

Although the regular season is over, that doesn’t mean anyone is slacking off in the style stakes. The playoffs are the Oscars red-carpet season of pro basketball. With fewer teams, higher-profile games and more postgame interviews, wardrobe scrutiny is more intense than ever — which is why Wade has some surprises up his custom-made sleeve.

“We’re going with even more colorful pocket squares, and we’ve shortened his pants hem, so look for tons and tons of colorful socks — and suspenders,” Barnett says. “And he started wearing this diamond lapel pin made by Jason of Beverly Hills, so you’ll definitely see that.”

A reminder, perhaps, of an even more highly prized Jason of Beverly Hills accessory, one that even the best stylist couldn’t procure — last year’s Lakers NBA Championship ring.

VMAN: The Warrior

GQ: Dwyane Wade’s Off-Court Highlight Reel

Recently I looked back at photos of the 2003 NBA draft, and frankly, Dwyane Wade’s oversize navy suit could have been worse. The underrated 21-year-old from Marquette University looked conservative and unassuming—like a kid trying not to make too much noise. But in the past three years, the seven-time All-Star and 2006 NBA Finals MVP has cranked up the volume both on and off the court. His style especially has grown more experimental, flamboyant even. Still, I never saw this revelation coming: “Three years ago I was like, ‘Man, I kind of want to paint my toenails black,’ ” Wade tells me. We’re on-set at a Manhattan photo studio right now his feet are covered by striped Paul Smith socks and size 14 Jordans. “At first I thought, ‘Nah, I can’t do that. They’re going to kill me.’ But eventually I decided to try it.” He went to Miami’s Mondrian hotel and asked a shocked pedicurist to give him the Marilyn Manson treatment. “Later I was on vacation in the Bahamas with LeBron,” Wade says, laughing, “and when he saw my toes he was like, ‘Something is seriously wrong with you.’ But eventually Bron was like, ‘You know what? You’re crazy, but that’s just you.’ When I first got into the league, I tried to fit in. Now I don’t care.”

Fashion Bomb Daily: Most Fashionable Man (Best of 2011)

We’re continuing our 2011 superlatives with a look at the men who have set our stylish hearts on fire:

Dwyane Wade

Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade showed he had skills off the court, demonstrating his sartorial talents with pastel colored blazers, well tailored suits, and fly kicks.

A true fashion aficionado, he made cameos at Men’s Fashion Week in Milan and Paris, sitting front row at the Spring/Summer 2011 shows for DSquared 2, Versace, andGivenchy:

Whether dressed in a tux or dressed down in a striped henley, Dwyane showed he knows how to dress his frame for maximum effect.

GQ: Dwyane Wade’s Five Steps to Off-Court Style

If you’ve been watching D-Wade evolve over the past few years, you’ve noticed that he’s been stepping up his style game. What we dig most is the way he takes a simple suit to bolder, more personal places with a few trademark styling moves. Here, we ask the Miami Heat superstar to break down his five favorite suited looks of the season.

1. My Throwback Tweed Look

“To wear a gray tweed suit, you have to be mature and confident in yourself. Some people can’t pull it off. My thing is that I always want to do something to pop my outfit. The sweater adds that punch of color, and the driving cap grabs attention.”

2. I’m Feeling the Double-Breasted Right Now

“I told my stylist that I wanted her to throw something different at me, and she brought me double-breasted suits. At first I wasn’t feeling it, but when we went to the fashion shows in Milan, it clicked: I can rock it. You’re going to see more DBs from me.”

3. A Little Chest Showing Like Brad Pitt

“If I had to wear one suit for the rest of my life, it’d be this right here. No tie gives you that suave, sexy Brad Pitt feel.”

4. The Look That Says I’m a Grown Man

“A turtleneck is about sophistication. You have to be confident to wear one, and trust me, I got this.”

5. I Can Sit Down with a CEO

“A Tom Ford three-piece makes you feel so confident, it’s bananas. I can walk into a meeting with this; I can sit down with a CEO. The patterned shirt and the pocket square make people do a double take—and that’s always what I’m looking for.”

Cartoon Network Honors Dwyane with the Most Stylish Athlete Award

Having a Hollywood actress as a girlfriend just might be added pressure to stay on top of the game, but whatever it may be, Dwyane Wade is winning in style!

Saturday evening, D-Wade took home the “That’s How I Roll” Most Stylish Athlete award at the 2nd Annual Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards in London.

The Miami Heat player and Gabrielle Union’s beau was in company of one of his favorite b-ball brothers LeBron James, who also scored big, taking home the “He Got Game” award for Best Male Athlete.

Dwyane Wade continues to game on and off the field, leaving him a prized winner in sports and style; the best of both worlds!

We love D-Wade and hope he keeps up the great work.