How Dwyane Wade, NBA On TNT Tuesday Crew Prepare By Watching Own ‘Game Film’

Game film sessions have become an integral part of any NBA team’s pre-game preparations to produce the best results on the floor.

Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, regarded as one of the best head coaches in the league today, started his career as a video coordinator for the franchise in the 1990s.

The tradition also extends off the court and in the studios of TNT as the NBA Tuesday post-game show crew apparently relies on their own “film” review to deliver a great coverage.

As exceptionally chronicled by John Gonzalez in his The Ringer piece, Tuesday regular Dwyane Wade said his crew, which includes host Adam Lefkoe, WNBA’s Candace Parker and all-time great Shaquille O’Neal, habitually watches Inside the NBA.

“Sometimes, when they’re in the same town but they’re not on the air, Wade will invite Lefkoe over to his house. They’ll eat together and talk about their show and, if it’s Thursday, they’ll put on Inside the NBA,” Gonzalez wrote about how the three-time NBA champion takes extra pointers as a studio analyst.

“We’re watching it because this is our game film—to be able to watch some of the greatest do it, right?” Wade said in the article.

Not only do the crew pay extra attention to polish their craft—they also seek constant advice from the members of their award-winning Thursday equivalent such as Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.

“Lefkoe asks Johnson constant questions, just as Parker and Wade try to use O’Neal, Smith, and Barkley as resources. More times than not, it ends up serving as a sort of study session,” Gonzalez emphasized. “Because if the underlying objective is to entertain on Tuesday, what better source material could they review?”

The NBA on TNT Tuesday post-game show started airing in 2020 as a reboot for the Tuesday time slot of the network, replacing Players Only which ran from 2017 to 2019.

While still looking to become its own signature show, the Tuesday show has reportedly managed to please Turner Sports and has its own unique identity and chemistry.

It’s been a work in progress since, one that’s headed the right way.