Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade speaks during media day at the NBA basketball team’s practice facility, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, in Miami. This will be Wade’s 16th and final season in the NBA. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
MIAMI — Dwyane Wade doesn’t know how this whole notion of his final season being called “The Last Dance” even started.
Fun fact: He can’t dance.
But the three-time champion and 12-time All-Star can still play, and the Miami Heat are hoping — and expecting — Wade to still be extremely valuable in this, his 16th and last season in the NBA. And at Heat media day Monday, Wade said that even he doesn’t know what to fully expect from what will be the last months of his playing career.
“I have no idea what I want out of this year,” Wade said. “We’re going to be able to figure this thing out as the year goes on. It’s going to take on a life of its own. … To me, that is the beauty of it, is that I do not know and we do not know.”
Starting Tuesday, the story starts getting told.
Wade and the Heat head about 45 minutes north to Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida for training camp — five straight days of workouts preceding Sunday’s preseason opener at San Antonio. Decisions will have to be made quickly about playing time and roles, and part of that formula is figuring out how Wade best fits into coach Erik Spoelstra’s plan.
“Most pro athletes, unfortunately, they don’t get to know when the end is — or at least they’re the last ones to know and it’s certainly not on their terms,” Spoelstra said. “He has this incredible blessing to know when that finish line will be and be able to have the perspective to make every day matter. It’s the right player, the right organization, the right coaching staff, the right timing for all of this.”
Wade said one of the reasons why he’s back is to fulfill a promise to Udonis Haslem that they would end their careers together. Later Monday, Haslem — also entering his 16th season with Miami — confirmed that he is retiring when this season ends.
“I don’t have a video,” Haslem deadpanned after climbing — without a ladder — atop a backboard on the Heat practice floor.
Wade announced his decision in a 10-minute video released on Sept. 16 that he was coming back for a final season, after at one time leaning about “90 percent” toward retirement over the summer. He agreed to a minimum contract worth $2.4 million, or roughly about $200,000 less than he made in his rookie season after the Heat took the Marquette guard with the No. 5 pick in the 2003 draft.
“At the end of the day, he’s a Hall of Famer,” Heat point guard Goran Dragic said. “He still can produce. He showed that last year. He can still take over a game at any time. And just to have him on the court is special. His ability, his aura, his presence on the floor, it influences everyone. It’s contagious, know what I mean? His confidence spreads, his ability, it’s a feeling that’s so good for us.”
Wade returned to the Heat in a trade last February, after spending the 2016-17 season with Chicago and the start of last season with Cleveland. For his career, he’s a 22.5-point scorer and the Heat all-time leader in points, assists, steals and games played.
“He has more to give this game,” Spoelstra said.
Wade enters this season 113 points shy of Clyde Drexler for No. 30 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The legacy was secured long ago. That’s not why he’s still on the court. Wade has turned much of his basketball attention already to his son Zaire, a rising high school junior who has Division I offers and will surely be getting more.
Before he becomes a full-timer in the bleachers at his kid’s games, there’s the last dance.
“I’m going to continue to be very uncomfortable with this whole thing,” Wade said. “The farewell tour is not something I wanted. I think people around me know I really, really, really didn’t want this. So I just look at it as this is me just saying ‘goodbye’ more than anything.”