The only Air apparent
By
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
June 20, 2006
DALLAS – He used to stretch out on his parents' living room floor with a Jordan jersey on his back and Jordan kicks on his feet.
Flat on his belly and head propped up on his hands, he watched every soaring dunk, every spinning jumper, every genius pass and ferocious steal. He was just one of a million – one of a hundred million maybe – and just another kid in Chicagoland (Robbins, Ill.) and another kid in the world engrossed by everything the greatest basketball player of all time could do.
"I'm a big dreamer,"
Dwyane Wade smiled.
Dwyane Wade wanted to "Be like Mike." He even drank the dang Gatorade.
"I remember when the Bulls won their first championship, sitting at home on my floor watching the games," said Wade, just nine years old at the time. "And then Jordan did his shot, his famous shot (the switching-of-hands layup against the Lakers). I went right in the backyard, turned the lights on and couldn't do it myself. I had no athletic ability. I was young..."
...The NBA spent years and years trying to manufacture and market this: The Next Michael, the Next Jordan. It has been a steady stream of pretenders. Some lacked the skill. Some lacked the smarts. Almost all lacked the championship mindset that made Jordan the very best when the very most was on the line.
Dwyane Wade, of course, may not even be the best player from his draft class, what with the witnessing of
LeBron James up in Cleveland. But LeBron, as great as he is, will be hard-pressed to match this Finals performance. He'll be challenged to clear this bar of greatness. Right now, the ring doesn't lie and Wade has one. LeBron doesn't.
Wade averaged a Jordanesque 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists in the Finals. In the last four games, when the Heat went from on the ropes to NBA champs, he averaged a mind-bending 39.3 points. He dominated every single aspect of this series – on offense, on defense and most importantly in the lonely moments where titles are won.
His multiple final-possession field goals and beyond-pressure-filled Game 5 overtime free throws will go down in NBA lore.
So too will his ability to draw whistles and get to the free-throw line even when he hadn't drawn contact – an ability that so frustrated the Mavericks that they mentally lost it and turned into a whining, moaning shell of a team. Wade was so deeply in their heads that they wound up with multiple fines, one suspension, an owner-turned-basket case and a normally sound coach who just unraveled.
The Mavericks weren't just quiet and resigned down the stretch, as hundreds of them just got up and left with 17.7 seconds remaining even though the game was in doubt until Wade squeezed the final-at-the-buzzer rebound.
It was like they couldn't stand to watch the inevitable. Dallas may have had a chance to still win, but, really, did they?
What Dwyane Wade just did to the Mavericks franchise and fan base was a complete and absolute beatdown in every possible sense of the word.
Oh, and he's only 24 years old....
