Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki recently opened up about his relationship with former rival and fellow NBA legend Dwayne Wade during an appearance on Marc Stein’s The Saturday Stein Line. In that guesting, the former Mavs superstar said that he and Wade are now cool with each other, though, he doesn’t think they qualify as friends.

“I wouldn’t say we’re friends,” the 2007 NBA Most Valuable Player said. “I think there’s a mutual sense of respect for each other’s career and obviously were cordial. There’s no bad blood, obviously, anymore. We all moved on, things were said on both sides or done that neither side liked, but that’s part of competition at the highest level.”

Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade certainly know, from a professional level, just how talented and competitive each other was back in their playing days, considering that the two had met in the grandest stage of the NBA not just once but twice. Wade and the Heat defeated the Mavs in the 2006 NBA Finals, while Nowitzki and company got their revenge five years later when they took down the LeBron James-infused Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.

It can be remembered that Wade and James made fun of Nowitzki’s fever during Game 4 of the 2011 NBA Finals, but it was Nowitzki who got the last laugh in that series in which he won Finals MVP honors after leading the Mavs to the franchise’s first-ever NBA title.

On August 11, Nowitzki and Wade will share another big stage again, as they will be enshrined in The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame along with Tony Parker, Pau Gasol, Becky Hammon, and Gregg Popovich.