Dwyane Wade #3 of the Miami Heat speaks to the media after winning the NBA Championship in Game Six of the 2006 NBA Finals on June 20, 2006 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Joe Murphy NBAE/Getty Images
Miami Heat icon Dwyane Wade won three NBA championships during his 16-year Hall of Fame career, but his first title stands above the rest.
“All championships are great. Winning is great. Winning small moments in life is great. But nothing like that,” Wade said of winning his first NBA championship in his third NBA season in 2006. “Nothing like proving to yourself and proving to the people who are in that foxhole with you that you actually can do it, man. I was so proud of us. That’s one of my proudest moments in life.”
That 2006 title was also the Heat’s first championship, and the organization will celebrate that watershed moment in franchise history by holding “2006 NBA Champions Night” during Tuesday night’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center. The Heat’s celebration will include a gameday tribute to the players and coaches from that 2005-06 Heat team, including a question-and-answer session with members of that team during halftime.
“Outside of that, in my sport, I’ve never done nothing that made me that proud,” Wade continued on what the 2006 championship means to him. “And so, that feeling, when I go back to it, even now, man, I smile. Like, you know what I’m saying? I just smile, just knowing that we accomplished something and I was a big, big, big part of something that will forever be talked about in a game that will never go anywhere.”
Wade was a huge part of that championship run, putting together one of the most memorable moments of his NBA career with one of the top NBA Finals performances in league history. The then 24-year-old Wade averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game in the six-game series to lead the Heat to its first NBA championship and win the 2006 NBA Finals MVP award.
The defining moment of that NBA Finals series came in Game 3 — with Miami already down 2-0 in the series — when Wade scored 12 points in the final seven minutes to rally the Heat from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit. “I ain’t going out like this!” Wade famously said during a timeout right before the Heat’s Game 3 comeback, as Miami went on to win four straight games on the way to the title.
“It was almost Jordan-esque,” Wade’s 2006 Heat teammate and fellow Heat great Alonzo Mourning said. “When you think of the best to ever do it, you think of MJ. It was that kind of play. It was Jordan-esque. The way D-Wade took over those games, averaging a damn near 40 points a game, that was phenomenal to watch. It really was. We obviously had to do our part as the others, but he put us on his shoulders, man. He made play after play after play after play at the right time. It was fun to watch.”
Wade was also on the Heat’s other two championship teams in 2012 and 2013, but his teammate LeBron James was named the NBA Finals MVP in both of those series.
“I’ve done so much in my life and in my career, but that’s the one thing they can’t take from me,” Wade said of the 2006 title. “They can say,’Oh, you played with LeBron.’ But you can’t take that from me, though, no matter what the cast or the perfect team. I did my job, and I did it like one of the greats have done it. I just remember really being proud of myself, being proud of that kid that came from absolutely nothing. And at that moment when we won that championship, I was on top of the world.
“It was all from the work. It was all from the confidence, and it was all from the belief. But that was hard, you know. Academically ineligible, having a kid in college, meniscus being torn in college, like all the things I went through, and I didn’t give up on me. So individually, one of my greatest moments as a basketball player was leading my team to the championship.”
FOR A GOOD CAUSE
As part of the Heat’s celebration of the 2006 championship team, the Heat held its annual gala on Monday night at Kaseya Center.
The Heat gala is an intimate fundraising event benefiting the Miami Heat Charitable Fund. This year’s gala, which featured current and past Heat players and coaches, celebrated the 20th anniversary of the team’s first NBA championship in 2006.
Proceeds from the event support the Miami Heat Charitable Fund, which benefits at-risk families across South Florida. Since its inception in 2006, the gala has raised more than $26 million.