Bum knee to Legendary: Ranking all of Dwyane Wade’s NBA Finals performances
By Brennan Sims
To celebrate Dwyane Wade’s enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, this week at All U Can Heat is “Dwyane Wade Week.” Each day, we will celebrate his career, rank his greatest performances and break down the biggest moments.
Dwyane Wade was a legendary Finals performer. He’s one of nine players to win Finals MVP at age 24 or younger. He was getting it down on the biggest stage down the very beginning. While winning Finals MVP, he propelled the Miami Heat to their first championship in 2006.
This was the first of five Wade Finals appearances. He was not phased by the big moments; he rose to the occasion as the lights got brighter. Even with his team’s back against the wall in the Finals, you could never count out a squad with a healthy Dwyane Wade on the roster.
With the table set, we rank D-Wade’s finals performances
5. 2014 vs San Antonio Spurs
Stats: 15.2 PPG, 43.8 FG%, 3.8 REB, 2.6 AST, 1.6 STL, 0.0 BLK
Remember three seconds ago when we said you couldn’t count out a Heat team with a healthy D-Wade on the roster? The 2014 Heat team did not have that. Wade denied that his body was failing him in the 2014 Finals but signs were there.
In the previous series, Pacers agitator Lance Stephenson pointed out that Wade’s knees weren’t right. Though Wade was able to shut up these trash talkers in the conference finals (he averaged 20 points on 62% True Shooting that series), his balky knees did affect his play.
He got his second knee surgery in 2012 and load managed for a lot of the 2014 season missing 28 games. Wade is on record stating that his first knee surgery in 2002 was not a surgery that had his long-term career in mind. He wouldn’t make any excuses, but his knees plagued him this series.
With Wade and the most of the Heat’s core struggling, Miami lost the series to the San Antonio Spurs four games to one. It was a lopsided Spurs victory, showing how valuable D-Wade is. San Antonio was coming for revenge and played a beautiful brand of team basketball. These next two Finals appearances are interchangeable as D-Wade rose to the occasion in both.