Tennie Sumague
EBC New York Bureau

(Eagle News) – Dwyane Wade bowed out of the NBA after 16 seasons in legendary fashion in the Miami Heat’s loss to the playoff-bound Brooklyn Nets last April. The final game of his “one last dance” tour had a Hollywood-style presence at Barclays Center where best friends LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony were on hand to support their “brother” and heckle him on the sidelines.

South Beach’s greatest champion received one of the highest honors that every player longs to achieve in their NBA career — to have their jersey retired in the place where they built a lasting legacy. Florida’s largest city gave DWade a three-day “l3gacy celebration,” which included his number 3 jersey hung up on the rafters of American Airlines Arena.

I have long been a DWade fan since his college days at Marquette University, a private university within walking distance of Fiserv Forum — the home of the Milwaukee Bucks. In his junior year, Wade led the Golden Eagles to the NCAA Final Four in 2003. That same year, the Heat — a team that I passionately despised as a 1990s New York Knicks fan — selected him fifth from a talented NBA draft pool that included James and Anthony (Melo played for Syracuse Orangemen, who won the NCAA title that year). The reason for my grudge — their current team president Pat Riley. Riley, a legendary coach who won four titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 80’s and one with the Heat during Wade’s third season in the NBA, led Patrick Ewing and the Knicks to the 1994 NBA finals before losing to Hakeem Olajawon and the Houston Rockets in seven games. Riley bolted to become the coach and team president of the Heat in 1995, creating much animosity between the two then division rivals for nearly a decade. However, drafting Wade changed the animosity between the two teams as New York basketball fans embraced the Heat and their franchise player.

“We have a history with New York fans here that goes way back and there used to be a lot of animosity that was attached to it. Then Dwyane Wade came along and he changed that,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “The fan base started rooting for him and for us. [They] would chant all game along and would stick around afterwards. That’s something that you don’t see here.”

Wade spent 14.5 seasons with the Heat where he was a 13-time All-Star and finished as the organization’s leading scorer. He won three NBA titles, the first in 2006 when he played alongside Shaquille O’Neal and earned finals MVP. He re-signed with the team and recruited James and Chris Bosh to take their talents to South Beach in 2010. The “Big 3” evolved into a superteam and became the flashiest trio that many love to love and love to hate. The Heat went to four straight finals, winning two under Spoelstra, who started with the Heat organization as the Audio-Visual guy in 1995.

Spoelstra’s pinoy roots come from his mother, Elisa, who hails from Laguna. The lone Filipino-American NBA coach recalled the time he felt depressed when Wade left the organization to play for his hometown Chicago Bulls in 2016. Wade returned to Miami in 2018 via trade after his brief stint with James and the Cleveland Cavaliers faltered.

“When he left for Chicago, my wife had to snap me back into attention,” Spoestra said. “It took me about a month to six weeks to stop feeling sorry and depressed because that was just a big change. He was in another uniform; it didn’t look right, didn’t feel right, it wasn’t right. This (finishing his career with Miami) he’s going to be a part of our family for [eternity].”

When it all ended on the night of April 11, 2019, Wade finished with a triple-double, embraced his “brothers” and his final jersey swap belonged to Anthony, who was on NBA hiatus at the time. The special bond with his “banana boat brothers” means the world to Wade.

” I didn’t get the opportunity to play with Melo and share jerseys with him. Everything worked out great for him to be here, for me to have an opportunity to give him my jersey and I was thankful that I could do that. Melo was the one [nudging] me to go on this retirement tour,” Wade said.

Wade’s unique NBA journey taught fans like me the value of inspiring others. He displayed humility, empathy, respect and gave it his all on the court unselfishly — qualities that many of today’s NBA players try to emulate. He currently serves as an ambassador to the Jr. NBA to help the youth engage in basketball. In his emotional speech, he thanked fans for being part of his legacy and quoted his friend, the late Kobe Bryant, echoing that “the most important thing is to try to inspire others so they can be great at whatever they do.” Wade indeed defines greatness and his legacy will be remembered forever.

(Eagle News Service with contributions from Kristoffer Valdez)