Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat saw his amazing career come to a close on Wednesday night. We’ll state the case that he is the greatest Miami Heat player of all time.
When Dwyane Wade was first drafted with the fifth pick by the Miami Heat in the 2003 NBA draft, no one including him could have pictured things playing out the way they have. No one saw him climbing the statistical leader boards and the player hierarchy as he has over his career. Nobody imagined the historic accolades and Hall of Fame career Dwyane Wade would go on to have, as they observed that draft day.
Who would have ever imagined that he would become the third-greatest two guard to ever play NBA basketball, and among the best players to ever play the game?
More than those accomplishments, who would have ever imagined that a 6’4″ guard out of Marquette would not only put a franchise on his back the way he did, but an entire city, until the point where they came to be known as “Wade County”?
No one did, and here’s something else no one knew. No one knew that this skinny kid “from Robbins, Illinois” would one day become beloved throughout the entire NBA, and become the greatest Miami Heat player of all time.
We’ll take a look at just what it is that separates Dwyane Wade from the other greats who have played for the Miami Heat, and we’ll state his case.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Stats
When looking at D-Wades stats, they jump right off the page at you. A career 22 point per game scorer, he did so on around 48 percent shooting from the floor. A really good figure in itself, but to put it in total perspective, Dwyane Wade made half of all the shots he ever took. Having averaged just over 30 points per game in the 2008-2009 season, a season in which he won the NBA scoring title, he took his highest amount of shots per game for a season at 22 per game.
Even at 22 field goal attempts per contest, he still converted 11 of those shots on average per night. Even outside of his scoring prowess, Dwyane Wade has career averages of around five rebounds and five assists per games, while throwing in almost two steals and a block per game. To cement his numbers even more, he is arguably the greatest shot blocking guard that the NBA has ever seen.
Looking at his statistical numbers on a macro level, he currently ranks number 29 of all time in scoring at 23,165 points. On January 6 of this season, he joined a list that only features two other names, those of Michael Jordan and his long time friend LeBron James. D-Wade became only the third player ever in NBA history to go for 20,000 points, 5,000 assists, 4,000 rebounds, 1,500 steals, 800 blocks, and 500 made three pointers across their NBA careers.
When it comes to the leaders of the Miami Heat statistics, Wade’s name is all over the chart. He is the leader in: games, minutes played, field goal attempts, field goals made, 2 pointers made, 2 pointers attempted, field goals missed, free throws, free throw attempts, assists, steals , turnovers, points, personal fouls, usage percentage, offensive win shares, defensive win shares, overall win shares, and value over replacement. He basically leads almost every category.
Titles
When talking about the GOAT of the entire NBA, the usual deciding factor between Michael Jordan and LeBron James usually comes down to hardware. Individual accomplishments are great, and necessary as apart of any great professional athletes legacy, but what really matters in the end are titles.
When thinking about the Miami Heat and their championship titles, they would be non-existent without Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr. When thinking about his first title with the franchise, he was the guy. Although the Diesel, Shaquille O’Neal, average 20 during that regular season and just over 18 in the playoffs, it was Flash who led that team.
During the 2005-2006 season, Wade averaged his third highest scoring total for the Miami Heat at 27.2 points per game. In the playoffs that year, he took it up to a slightly higher notch where he average over 28 points per game in route to the NBA title and NBA finals MVP.
On top of his superb performance in his first championship run, he was of course an integral part of the titles won during the Big 3 era. During the playoffs of the 2012 title run, D-Wade averaged almost 23 points per game, while he averaged 16 points per game in the 2013 run. Numbers are swell, and D-Wade has them, but what he also has is championship hardware to back the numbers up.
Key factor in creating the Big 3 era
Speaking of the Big 3 era, it would have not been possible if not for Dwyane Wade. D-Wade was friends with both LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Although it was necessary for him to convince his very best bud in LeBron James to come to South Beach before the Bosh move was as relevant as it was, but nevertheless, he still helped to facilitate every bit of it.
On top of doing the footwork to make it all happen, Dwyane Wade not only sacrificed financially but as it has also been well documented, he sacrificed himself as well. In order to make that whole thing work the way it worked, he had to be willing to not only take a back seat as far as shots went on the court, but he had to also be willing to share some of the shot calling duties as being the face of the Miami Heat.
Regardless of how you view it, if not for Dwyane Wade’s selflessness and desire to do what was best for the Miami Heat, the Big 3 era and the success they were able to achieve during those times would have never been possible, and the history of the franchise would look very different indeed.
He checks all the boxes
When thinking about the greatest players in any team’s history, you have to check all the boxes so to speak. Dwyane Wade does just that for his Miami Heat.
When looking at the length of his tenure with the Miami Heat, he spent most of all of his 16 years in the league with the Heat. Outside of the one-and-a-half seasons away from his adopted hometown Heat, American Airlines Arena on Biscayne was always his home. Also, when thinking about great players, there has to be something that set them apart, a certain “it” factor if you will.
Along with his infectiously huge signature smile, D-Wade’s play on the court was electrifying. His style was one of reckless abandon, in which he would seemingly throw his body against a metal wall if that’s what it took to make a play for his team. He wound up on the floor more than just about any player in the NBA, appropriate for a man who “fell seven times and got up eight”, but this was just the only way in which he knew how to play.
His floor game was pure excitement every time he stepped on the court, even up until his final season, where he was still making the birdies fly by with his signature pump fake. Another crucial box he checked that coincides with the length of his tenure, is the fact that he stayed through the down times. Even through the lowly 2007-2008 season where the Miami Heat went 15-67, one of only three years including this one where he didn’t make the playoffs, he stuck it through and never asked to go.
Even when comparing him to other Miami Heat greats, he’s the one that comes out on top. Looking at a few that most notably come to mind: he beats out LeBron as he was truly Cleveland’s and has since become LA’s, when thinking about Shaq, he made his bones in LA as well before coming over to join the Heat family, Alonzo Mourning was great and although he played almost 11 of his 15 seasons in Miami, he didn’t have quite the impact D-Wade did.
You could mention Tim Hardaway, Eddie Jones, Chris Bosh, Glen Rice, and most appropriately Udonis Haslem(big shout out to UD…top 3-4), but none of them quite stack up to what Dwyane Wade means to this organization.
He came back
In the social media and me..me..me era that is 2019, players, their egos and money can often times drive wedges in the middle of any relationship. This was almost the case with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, as Pat Riley has recently admitted that he didn’t handle what ended up being D-Wade’s year and half long departure the right way.
He says that if he had given Wade a max deal in 2014, which Wade deserved having never being the highest paid player on his team, he would have never had left. Those hard feelings garnered over that contract dispute didn’t stop Dwyane Wade from making his way back home though. Although it didn’t work out in Cleveland, he surely could have asked to be traded somewhere else, or walked away from the game entirely.
He didn’t, however. Not only did he not walk away from the game, or an opportunity to come back to the franchise where it all started, he did so with flare. Even while coming off the bench this season for the Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade was arguably their best player for the season.
While he was without a doubt the most consistent player on the team throughout this season, he was second only to swing-man Josh Richardson in points, and was near the top of the list in every other statistical category. To reiterate, he did this off the bench, averaging only around 26 minutes per game.
Looking at his overall accomplishments, he was a 13-time All-Star, a three-time NBA Champion, and the finals MVP in the 2005-2006 season. He was the NBA scoring champion in the 2008-2009 season, an eight time All-Star, an All-Rookie team performer in 2003-2004, and even claimed an All Star Game MVP trophy in the 2009-2010 season. Lie to yourself all you like, you would be hard pressed to identify another fitting of the title, but these are the reasons why Dwyane Wade is the greatest Miami Heat player of all time.