As the career of Dwyane Wade, the most celebrated and beloved athlete in South Florida, winds down, Pat Riley is in a reflective mood. He remembers when Wade started to write his own basketball legacy over a decade ago. It’s the 2006 NBA Finals. The Miami Heat are trailing the Dallas Mavericks 2-0 in the series, and are facing a 13-point deficit with six minutes left in the fourth quarter of Game 3.
Facing another disappointing end to the season, Riley simply wrote one word down on a piece of bluestock card paper: SEASON. (Riley likes to keep his messages succinct. He used to text Wade all the time after games: BIW. In all caps. With an exclamation point. “Best in the world!” is what it stood for. It was what Riley believed of his franchise player.)
The huddle was silent, until Wade stood up and told the rest of the team: I’m not going out like this. In that moment, Wade reminded Riley of Michael Jordan. What stood out immediately once he stepped on the court in a Miami Heat uniform was his basketball IQ and competitive desire. “He wouldn’t punch you in the face,” Riley said. “He would just get 35 on you.”
Wade went out and scored 12 of the Heat’s 22 points the rest of the way, finishing with 42 points on the evening. The Heat came back to win the game. They never lost again, clinching the franchise’s first NBA championship in six games.
At 24-years-old and in his third season in the league, Wade was the Finals MVP, averaging 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.7 steals in the series.
BIW.
Tonight, Wade will appear in his final NBA game. We spoke to friends, family, teammates and those in his inner circle and collected some of their favorite memories about a player who has left a legacy both on the court and away from it.
In the summer of 2010, Chris Bosh and LeBron James joined Wade in Miami. The Big Three was formed and they celebrated before even playing a game together. Four consecutive Finals appearances and two championships would follow, but the team had to suffer a loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals in their first season together and address the elephant in the room: Who was going to be the guy on this team.
Pat Riley (Miami Heat team president): I had more conversations with the three of them in the first year than I did in the last three years. I would bring them together, we would meet at my office in Miami, we would sit around in the lobby of a hotel, or we would have lunch. We talked about how this whole thing was going to evolve. In the first year, it was hard to broach the question of: Whose team is it? Nobody wanted to have that kind of ego.
Chris Bosh (Miami Heat forward, 2010-2016): With Pat, it’s like when Master Yoda talks to you. You’re not going to understand everything he says. I was like, “What the hell is he talking about, dude.” And then, weeks later, or even years later, it hits you.
Riley: After we lost to Dallas in the NBA Finals in the first year, a lot of people blamed LeBron [James]. It was unfair. LeBron was being unselfish and trying to allow the game to come to him without forcing his will on the game.
Bosh: We weren’t ready for the spotlight. It was unprecedented. It was impossible to be ready for it. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but the level of difficulty surprised us.
Riley: Over the summer, I had exit meetings with each of them, and we broached the subject a little bit. I said, you guys are gonna have to get together, and even if there isn’t a pecking order, there has to be an understanding of who’s the guy. I hate to use the word, and they hated using it, too. So they got together, and Dwyane and Chris told LeBron, this is your team, you’ve got to be the guy. That’s when the whole thing changed.
Alonzo Mourning (Miami Heat executive): Dwyane made a tremendous amount of sacrifice in order to stimulate the success of the whole team. Yes, they were friends. But it allowed that to happen.
Bosh: It speaks to how much Dwyane wanted to win and what kind of competitor and person he is.
Riley: This was his team, and he just said, “I don’t care. I just want to win.” It happened organically and respectfully. Those three guys were smart enough to realize it had to change. And it did.
At the 2016 ESPY Awards, Wade stood on stage with his three closest friends—LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul—and together, they encouraged athletes around the world to exert their own influence and speak out on social issues that matter to them. The group had become known as The Banana Boat Crew, growing close during the 2008 Olympics, when they played together on Team USA and won a gold medal. They played a lot of cards.
Chris Paul (friend): We played cards every single day for like 35 straight days. D is the worst. You talk about Booray or any of them type games, D is awful.
Carmelo Anthony (friend): D might not want me to say this, but I can confirm that.
Gabrielle Union (wife): When those guys play against each other on the court, it’s like they don’t know each other. They treat each other like a motherfucker stole something from them off the street.
Wade: If I had to pick who is the most competitive out of the four of us, I would say CP.
Paul: I want to win in everything. When our team plays against each other, they know, I hate to lose. The quickest thing all of them will say—because they’re all 6’6” and taller—is I got little man complex.
Wade: He’s the smallest, so he’s got little man complex.
Anthony: He hates that. But we mess with him.
Paul: I’m cool with it. It is what it is.
Anthony: In the early days, it was just about basketball. We came in as rookies and had to carry the whole franchise on our backs. We understood each other from that standpoint. And then it just became more genuine, it became about more than basketball. It became more about family.
Union: They all committed to going to Las Vegas to watch their kids play in a tournament, because it’s important for black children to see black men show up for each other, and for their families, and for their friend’s families.
Paul: It’s been amazing to see Zaire [Wade], Bronny [James], Bryce [James], and Kiyan [Anthony]. It’s amazing to see all of our kids and for them to get a chance to see the type of relationship we have.
Anthony: When we first came in, we wasn’t supposed to like each other, and I think we recognized that early. We wasn’t supposed to like each other, we weren’t supposed to be so close to each other and hang out, we weren’t supposed to do that.
Union: They epitomize black boy joy. They epitomize black male friendship. They epitomize the fact that you are stronger together. They let the world into their brotherhood. When they say bigger than basketball, it really fucking is.
After four consecutive Finals appearances together, LeBron decided to return to Cleveland in the summer of 2014. Riley re-signed Bosh to a five-year, max contract, but asked Wade to take less money and a shorter contract in order to save room for potential free agents. Wade signed a two-year deal with a player option and, after a season, left Miami for Chicago the following year after contract negotiations broke down.
In retrospect, Riley wishes he didn’t keep asking his franchise player to keep sacrificing for the team. “I made one bad decision that could have ruined our relationship forever,” Riley said. “It was the wrong approach on my part. That’s my biggest regret. I insulted him by not offering the max. You don’t do that to your guy. If I had to go back and do one thing differently, that’s what I would have done.”
Wade made his return to Miami in a trade deadline deal in February of 2018. The crowd was electric in his return. His jerseys filled the stands. The hometown hero had returned. And then, five days later, a gunman opened fire on students and faculty members at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing seventeen students and staff members.
On February 27th, almost two weeks after the incident, Wade hit a game-winner at home wearing sneakers with the name of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver’s name on them. Oliver, 17, was a lifelong fan of Wade and was buried in Wade's jersey. In early March, students returned to school for their first full day back, and Wade was there to surprise them.
Lisa Metelus (business manager): I first met Dwyane after his rookie season. He was very shy and quiet. He didn’t really have his voice at the time. I remember being frustrated. I had worked for 13 years with Alonzo Mourning and he built a youth center in Overtown, Miami, one of the most impoverished areas in the city. I was frustrated at Dwyane because I felt like he didn’t understand the power of his voice.
Wade: My mom always told me when I was a kid that my life was bigger than basketball. I didn’t know what she meant at the time because all I wanted to do was play.
Metelus: He had just gotten traded back to Miami. We had conversations about [the shooting]. It wasn’t a question of whether he was going to the school. He was going and the goal was simple: he wanted to uplift their spirit.
Adam Alhanti (Parkland survivor, co-founder of March For Our Lives): The same day Dwyane showed up at Stoneman Douglas, Betsy DeVos came and stayed for less than an hour, so to have someone like Dwyane come and surprise everyone and actually sit down with us was unbelievable. It spoke a lot about his character.
Alhanti: People’s faces changed the second he walked in. Three weeks prior to that, there was no light. There was a cloud hanging over the school and the community.
Metelus: I’ve been around Dwyane for a long time and seen a lot of people respond to him. Honestly, the response from the kids that day, I don’t think I’ve ever seen his presence be as powerful as it was in that moment. There was a lot of built up emotion and it was just a moment of joy for all the kids to see him.
Wade: You get into situations where you’re called upon to do something, to stand up and to speak out.
Alhanti: He talked to everyone in the cafeteria, then he came into the classroom to meet with those of us in student government. He talked to about 40 of us, and then, he sat down with myself and the other co-founders for March For Our Lives and we talked for an hour and a half.
Metelus: He asked the students: How can I help you? What do you need the most from me? Is it speaking out? Is it money?
Alhanti: We talked about how the sports community could be involved and how we could create a movement that would reach all races and gender in the community. We went through some fundraising ideas and eventually got Carmelo Anthony involved.
Wade: It was bigger than myself. A lot of parents don’t have the platform [I have]. A lot of parents don’t have the finances. There was a lot of things I could do. It’s what other people would have done if they were in my position.
Metelus: The students told him and he delivered on it.
Wade and Union donated $200,000 to March of Our Lives to help send students to a gun control rally in Washington, DC which was attended by over 800,000 people. At Florida’s Art Walk in March 2018, Wade hosted a free art gallery and dedicated a special Parkland 17 exhibit to honor the victims.
Alhanti: The smallest things he would do was the biggest thing for us. Just a picture he would post on his social media was movement changing.
Union: Gun violence has affected him personally in a number of different ways. And here we were again and he took the role of being a leader.
Anthony: The country is in shambles and we need more action and less talking. We need to figure it out and be proactive rather than reactive. The more positivity we can spread, the more influences we can give, we’re going to attach ourselves to that. We’re going to figure out a way of laying down a foundation and a blueprint on supporting those causes.
Riley: Dwyane is sensing something in our country and our world that’s not right. He’s one of the first to stand up with his platform and say something.
Alhanti: To spend time with someone who cared, that meant a lot to us. He knew this was something that had to be fixed. Just being around him, just being around such a kind soul, it meant a lot to us. We knew that he genuinely wanted to help us.
Metelus: He’s come to recognize his obligation to speak up and speak out and to utilize his voice to help people.
Wade: I’m thankful I was able to be there to shed light and support a cause that hopefully we start to see change in because it’s affecting a lot of our lives and I want to be part of that change.
A theme in Wade’s last season has been to exchange jerseys with an opposing player after each game. After their final matchup against each other, Wade and James had an emotional embrace on the court before swapping jerseys. Paul walked into the arena with his son wearing a Dwyane Wade jersey in their final game against each other. Carmelo Anthony sat courtside at Madison Square Garden to Wade and the Miami Heat in January.
Union: For Melo to show up at the Garden, I’m sure he had conflicted feelings about that, but he showed the fuck up.
Anthony: For my own personal reasons, being in that building was hard. It was difficult. But it was easy to go and support D.
Metelus: The first person I called when I realized Dwyane was retiring this past summer was Chris. He called Dwyane right away. Two years ago, when I was in Paris, Carmelo and I had a conversation about Dwyane’s retirement, and he said, “We gotta send him out in style.” It was LeBron who was with Dwyane when he got custody of his kids. He was part of his support system. People don’t hear about all these stories.
Union: All of these things you just don’t see on this scale with four superstars and they do it. I love that they let us see the possibilities of it. I think it’s beautiful to see. I think we need to see that. Their joy in themselves and in each other is really fucking real.
Wade: Our legacy has to keep going after the game of basketball in order for it to be a legacy. We have to keep doing things in the community and speaking out on things and continue to do that after the ball stops bouncing.
Paul: I don’t think we’re old enough to reflect on it fully. One of the biggest things that I hope people take away from us is that we can be the utmost competitors, and you can still have a real relationship. It’s something that’s gonna last way beyond the last buzzer.
When Wade announced his retirement plans before the start of the season, Union was delighted to have her husband around more, but also wanted to make sure he had a plan.
“I don’t want to leave for work and he’s on the couch and I come back and he’s still there,” Union said. “That’s not gonna work for me. I have a strong work ethic and I expect you to have a strong ethic too.”
Thankfully, Wade has built a diverse portfolio of business ventures off the court with a focus on what he’s interested in—socks, wine and fashion to name a few.
Metelus: When we first started, Dwyane had a half-a-million shoe deal with Converse, and he was happy with what he had. A few years in, at one point, Dwyane had six national commercials running at the same time. I remember having a conversation with him in the American Airlines Arena parking lot and he said, “I want more.”
Wade: I watched what Shaq was doing off the court, and to be able to ask him questions and have someone to run things by as I was trying to build my brand helped a lot. He helped me become who I am. He fast tracked it.
Metelus: I said, “Are you kidding me? What more do you want?” He challenged me and my team. He said he no longer just wanted to be the face of a brand and get paid to be in commercials. The partnerships are great, but he wanted to start owning and having equity. And we started thinking outside the box.
Clark Miyazaki (Executive vice president of business development, Stance Socks, which partners with Wade on PKWY): We wanted to add a little personality and self impression and Dwyane had the same vision. I remember an early sock design Dwyane sent over. It had a checkerboard print on the foot, a cheetah print in the middle and a surfer dude riding a wave up top. I put my foot down and said no. Dwyane’s people said they needed it to be in the collection. It ended up being his number one selling sock in his collection. I lost all ability to push back on design from that point forward.
Anita Elberse (Professor, Harvard Business School, where Wade attended a four-day course in 2013): The first time I met Dwyane was in my class. We study a dozen case studies over four days and you are supposed to read all of them before you show up at campus. He thought he could get by without actually reading them. He realized after the first class that wasn’t the case. I remember him sitting in the common area going through cases with a highlighter until 1 a.m. in the morning. In the end, he was very prepared and made significant contributions to the conversation.
Metelus: When the deal for Li Ning came about, we both looked at each other like, “Is this what we really want to do?”
Elberse: He’s a really good basketball player but he’s a really smart business person. He’s someone who’s not just good at one thing, he’s good at a number of things. He’s very open, down to earth and approachable. I think he treats the people around him as family and has a genuine interest in them.
Metelus: [Li Ning] gave him control and the ability to build his own brand and grow his presence in China. It was a no brainer. A big thing for Dwyane off the court is legacy. He wants to build a legacy off the court that his kids can be a part of. That’s important to him.
In 2013, Wade showed up to the arena for a playoff game wearing a pair of capri pants. The pair had been hemmed before the waist was tightened and adjusted, so when Wade put them on before the game, they were just a bit high. Wade decided to roll with them anyways.
Calyann Barnett (Wade’s personal stylist since 2007): For the most part, I’m going to say we’re at 97 percent on point. Even when there’s been a fashion oops, he’s confident enough to own it so it turned into a fashion ahh. The best example was the capri pants.
Metelus: There are moments where Calyann and I have butted heads in the past, there have definitely been some moments where I’ve seen him, I’ll never forget being at home watching that game, and being like what the fuck is he wearing.
Barnett: Guys are now rocking the high pants. I think the NBA arena is where a lot of fashion trends start, and sometimes they start as accidents. It takes somebody who is confident, who owns it, to turn it into a trend.
Metelus: It got to the point where he started making headlines for his fashion and people started following his trends, so I stopped questioning it.
Barnett: He knows his wheelhouse. He knows what he looks good in. He knows the staples that he needs in his bag, whether it’s a good blazer or jeans that fit him. He can tell the designer of a shirt based on the style and cut. The other day, before an interview, he was like, “This is a Christian Dior shirt isn’t it?” He knows what works for his body now, it just comes from listening and asking questions and paying attention to the different designers that he wears.
Metelus: I remember a game in Indiana in the playoffs, he wasn’t really playing well in the series, so he decided to walk in the arena in pink pants. He said, “I know if I walk into the arena wearing pink pants, I’m going to have to back it up.” And he did.
Barnett: His fashion sense has evolved since we started working together. Like most of the NBA, he was very urban, larger, big-fitting clothes, basketball shorts, super long suits, wide leg suit pants. The thing with Dwyane is he’s always open to trying new things, put it on, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. That’s the one consistent thing that’s stayed true throughout.
In 2014, Jamie Watson, partner of Napa Valley’s Pahlmeyer Winery discussed the wine business with Wade over glasses of champagne and italian wine at Valentino in Santa Monica. The partnership eventually resulted in Wade Cellars, Dwyane’s own wine label.
Jamie Watson: What stuck out to me was how curious he was and how quickly he picked things up. You saw the level of humility, patience and thoughtfulness in how he asked questions.
Metelus: Dwyane grew up in a house where alcohol was abused and it was something that left a bad mark for him. When he got older and Chris [Bosh] and LeBron [James] came to Miami, he was a grown man, he was going out and having wine. That’s when he was introduced to it.
Riley: We’ve talked about it. I’ve been buying wine since the mid 1990’s. I’ve got over three to four thousand bottles of wine. I’m not a big wine drinker but I collect. I remember a conversation with him when he came out with his wine line.
Metelus: He grew to understand it. He grew to love it. He grew to understand how wine doesn’t always have to necessarily have a negative connotation.
Riley: He’s become a very astute wine collector.
Watson: I think Dwyane had started going down that rabbit hole, he had more than just a passing knowledge. The thing that impressed me about his knowledge, instead of saying this is what I like because I’m told to like it, he really follows his pallette. Having that authenticity in the wine world is really rare.
Prior to the start of training camp, Metelus received a call from Wade. He wanted a photographer to set up in a studio and wanted a spotlight shining down on him. He wanted to speak to the camera with no one else in the room. The result was an emotional 10-minute video where Wade announced he would come back for one last dance. It became the slogan to his farewell tour. His season-long jersey exchanges have captured the attention of everyone around the league, but the 37-year-old has also shown that he’s still got plenty left in the tank.
For Wade’s final game on Wednesday, his teammates have plans to pay homage to his one last dance mantra and show up to the arena as if they’re attending a final prom date, an idea first proposed by teammate Justise Winslow. In his final season, Wade’s left plenty of memorable moments for himself and those close to him.
Wade: All-Star Weekend was one of my favorite memories this season. To have Zaire with me every step of the way. That was something I wanted to do. That was something I needed on my way out.
Metelus: Zaire was by his side throughout the weekend. It made Dwyane so happy.
Wade: It would make me happier than anything I’ve done in my career if Zaire could take his game to this level. I love the kid that he is. I’m so lucky he’s the oldest and he helps set the precedent. He’s maturing and coming into his own. As a basketball player, I just watch the joy that he plays with and it gives me joy.
Riley: Now would be the time to offer him a max contract [Laughs]. But I don’t think it’s a money thing with him, he wants to go out on his terms. He’s played above and beyond expectations this year. He’s handled everything flawlessly without pointing the finger at himself and saying this is all about me. It’s been a beautiful ride.
Mourning: I remember when he was just a kid, all he would eat was hamburger and french fries. I would try to get him to eat vegetables. I’ve watched this man grow up into a father, a husband, a leader, a philanthropist, Now, he’s able to end this chapter of his life the way he wants to end it. Not a lot of athletes are able to do that. I’m so happy he’s able to do that. He will go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest athlete to come out of South Florida.
Riley: There’s been a handful of athlete in this city that have left their mark, but there isn’t any mark by anybody else bigger, any footprint bigger, anybody after their career bigger than Dwyane.
Anthony: He can still continue playing if he wanted to. I think he’s made peace in his decision. This is the perfect time for him to go out.
Union: I don’t think anyone has any idea how much time is spent making sure his mind, body and soul is ready to to play at the highest level. That’s been really motivating. Most guys are kind of like, if I’m gonna come off the bench then whatever fuck it, people are gonna clap for me because they’re going to clap for me anyways. He’s been the absolute opposite.
Wade: I don’t know if it’s going to hit me right away. It’s gonna take awhile. It might take until next year when I’m home watching the guys play.
Union: It’s been really cool to watch NBA fans roll out the red carpet for him and respect what he’s brought to the game. It’s been entertaining. It’s heartwarming. I’ve cried a number of times. It’s nice that people care enough to do this for him.
Wade: I know it’s going to be an emotional feeling. In some ways, it’s going to be a confusing feeling. Ultimately, I’m going to walk away knowing that the time spent on this court I gave everything I had and I can walk away with my head up high knowing that I gave everything I wanted to give to the game.
