Tonight’s Miami Heat matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers, marks an important moment for Dwyane Wade.
This evening’s Miami Heat game against the Los Angeles Clippers will be the 1,000th career game for Dwyane Wade. In his 16th and final season before sailing off into retirement, this is just the latest illustrious accomplishment for the superstar.
Though, as a team, year 16 has yet to go the way Way had hoped so far, tonight offers a unique opportunity of reflection for the 36-year-old. Wade will become the 130th player in NBA history to appear in 1,000 career games.
Over his 16 seasons, Wade has experienced just about as much as any player possibly could.
Wade was among one of the most prominent draft classes that the NBA has ever seen in 2003.
Then, just three years after he was drafted, Wade took the Heat not only to their first NBA Finals appearance, but helped win the first title in franchise history, as the 2006 Finals MVP.
In 2008, Wade was present for a passing of powers when Erik Spoelstra took over for now president Pat Riley, as the team’s head coach.
Wade was also a prominent force in the creation of the “Big Three,” with LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining the Heat, solidifying Miami on the basketball map as one of the league’s marquee locations.
Then, when James left Miami and Bosh’s career ended when he was diagnosed with blood clots, Wade was suddenly left alone to salvage the team.
In 2016, Wade made the bold decision to leave Miami to sign with the Chicago Bulls, abruptly ending his 13-year tenure with the Heat. Wade even eventually made his way back alongside James, playing 46 games in Cleveland in 2017.
Then, out of nowhere, Wade improbably found himself back as a member with the Heat, after being dealt in a trade just before the league’s trade deadline.
Wade has experienced injury, he has experienced the highest of highs, and he has even experienced the lowest of lows; but that’s what’s made Wade’s career so great.
Wade is just one of 10 players in NBA history to rank in the top 48 all-time in points, assists and steals.
He is a three-time NBA champion, a 12-time All-Star, and has been First Team All-NBA twice. He is the only player in league history at the height of 6-foot-4 to record at least 100 blocks in a season, and is the only NBA player ever to score 2,000 points, record 500 assists, 100 steals and 100 blocks in one season.
This season, Wade has faced one of his more difficult challenges in his entire career.
On a team mashed with up and coming young players, banged up veterans and even some disgruntled guys, Wade has become one of the few solidity’s for the Heat.
Off the court, Wade even had to take time off, after the birth of his daughter, shortening the already-limited remaining games he has left. For what seems to be the first season in his career, Wade has had to truly take a back seat and let players such as Josh Richardson run the show.
The opportunity to play this season and the shot at logging his 1,000th career game wasn’t a sure thing for Wade, either. Retirement was a plausible result, and it took a long summer of deliberating, for Wade to come to the decision that he wanted to stick it out for one last ride.
With the Heat standing at just 10-14, as the team aims for the playoffs, Wade’s focus will largely have to be on helping in any way possible to win games.
However, Saturday night’s game in the “City of Angels” is a unique chance for both Wade and his fans, to appreciate just how much he has accomplished in his basketball life.