Source: Sarah Stier / Getty
Dwyane Wade couldn’t possibly top his stellar performance in his final NBA home game right?
WRONG.
With banana boat buddies LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony in attendance Wade closed out his NBA career with a triple-double in Brooklyn.
You wouldn’t have known the Brooklyn Nets won the game 113-94 securing the 6th seed in the NBA Playoffs at all. The arena was full of Heat fans rocking Wade jerseys as well as Nets fans who just wanted one last glimpse of the future Hall of Famer on the court. Despite being out of playoff contention, Wade dug deep for his swan song finishing with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
He secured fifth career triple-double in front of his close friends whom he had no idea was coming with his 10th assist coming off a pass to his teammate of 15 years Udonis Haslem who made his only start of the season in this game.
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1116154676255318018
With both James and Paul’s teams playing their final games and Melo currently not on a roster, the trio made a pact to be at the game. Speaking with FOX Sports during an interview LBJ spoke about why they decided to come and watch Wade’s last dance in an NBA uniform.
“Listen, we all started this journey together.
Obviously, CP came into the league a couple years after us, but we have a brotherhood that is just so much more than basketball. CP played last night, we had our last regular-season game last night, and Melo is right here in New York, so we kind of made the plan and made the decision to come up here.”
Bron, CP3, and Melo weren’t the only big names in attendance. His wife Gabrielle Union, father Dwyane Wade Sr., Heat Owner Mickey Arison, general manager Andy Elisburg, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker and former teammate Mike Miller were also on hand to witness Wade’s final game.
After the game, Wade spoke on seeing his brothers courtside stating:
“Obviously, it means a lot. They know that I will always be there for them, especially in a moment like this. No matter what I’m doing, I will be there for their last game. It was cool to see those guys over there. I’m glad they came, but at the same time, I wish they weren’t here because the whole time they kept telling me to shoot, shoot, shoot. But it was great. We’ve got a brotherhood. Those are my brothers.”
As for his jersey swap, he saved his last one for Carmelo Anthony, the only player he wasn’t able to do so with the entire season.
“It was fitting,” Wade said. “I didn’t get the opportunity to play against Melo this year and exchange jerseys with him. That was the missing piece out of this whole season. So everything worked out great, with him being here, and being able to give him my jersey.
“I was thankful I could do that. Obviously, I’ve talked about this, but Melo was one of the nudges, to help me look at it a different way. I was looking at retiring before I came back, and he helped nudge me to go on this tour.
“It was fitting that the last one was him.”
Source: Sarah Stier / Getty
One final note, Paul Pierce who has been catching flack lately for saying he had a better career than Wade (he didn’t) was subjected to a “Paul Pierce sucks” chant led by both Nets and Heat fans.
He also got love from the Kobe Bryant on Twitter who also balled out in his final NBA game.
Kobe speaks the truth, congrats to D-Wade on one hell of a career, we are looking forward to Hall of Fame acceptance speech.
