Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade and the sacrifice of a champion
By Chase Eyrich
Dwyane Wade recently inked his new sweet sixteen contract for the franchise that he’s sacrificed so much for: the Miami Heat.
The last contract of Dwyane Wade’s NBA career is for the league veteran minimum: $2.4 million.
The shooting guard obviously wasn’t looking for a huge contract; it simply isn’t possible with the Miami Heat’s current salary situation.
However, even with the cap, Miami actually had a $5.3 million mid-level exception to offer Wade.
Instead, Wade’s contract will look more like that of Jordan Mickey, Rodney McGruder and A.J. Hammons.
The Miami legend, who will go down as the franchise leader in points, assists, steals, games and much more, will have never been the highest paid player in his 15 seasons with the Heat.
How can one player mean so much to a franchise and not see it reciprocated monetarily?
Even after one of the greatest finals performances we’ve ever seen, Wade wasn’t paid his dues.
His three-year rookie scale extension was for $43.2 million, and never set him up to be the highest paid player on the team.
With the trade of Shaquille O’Neal, Shawn Marion and Jermaine O’Neal came heavy contracts. For comparison, Marion was paid $16.4 million in 2007-08, while Wade was paid $13 million.
With Wade’s salary reaching almost $16 million in the 2009-10 season, Jermaine O’Neal was earning $23 million.
After seven years of becoming the cornerstone of the Heat’s franchise, it was finally time to pay the shooting guard.
That offseason, questions began to loom regarding if Wade would stay with the Heat.
Plenty of teams would pay for the talents of Flash, and there were whispers of Wade joining a couple other All-Stars with his home team, the Chicago Bulls.
Instead, president Pat Riley told Wade to bring his friends to South Florida.
The only catch?
His friends LeBron James and Chris Bosh would be paid equally, while Wade earned slightly less.
Four straight trips to the NBA Finals and two NBA Championships were the trade off.
In 2014, Wade took a pay cut to help add more key components to The Big Three. But James decided to go ack home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Heat decided to sign Bosh to a five-year max contract.
After two frustrating years of free agency talks with the Heat, Wade decided to go home too.
And for the first time in his career, Wade was the highest paid player on his team.
But in the end, that didn’t matter.
Because after a season and a half of things just not feeling right with the Bulls and the Cavaliers, Wade finally found his way back to the Heat.
In other words, it’s always been clear that Miami and Wade just go together.
Next. Miami Heat: Which players are the most valuable trade pieces?. dark
Wade has always made sacrifices for the Heat. And his last year of playing NBA basketball looks no different.