This wasn’t supposed to be a rivalry. There was virtually nothing to suggest that Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki would become rivals but it happened nonetheless.

During All-Star Weekend, Wade and Nowitzki played their final All-Star Games and were given honorary jerseys to commemorate the momentous occasion. The Miami Heat guard is definite about retiring, but his Dallas Mavericks counterpart remains non-committal. Nowitzki has said that he’ll make that decision after the season. More than likely, he will hang up his sneakers and announce it this summer perhaps to avoid an attention-grabbing farewell tour similar to Wade’s.

No one thought these two would find themselves in a career-long rivalry that would span much of their careers. No one. Not the media nor the critics and certainly not the players themselves. But fate, destiny or God-ordained plans brought these two combatants together to battle it out for the championship twice. To have a lengthy ice-cold relationship because of them, and to bow out of the All-Star Game at the same time. And if Nowitzki decides to retire after the season as expected, they’ll retire together as well.

Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul

Early Rivals

Wade went toe-to-toe with LeBron James early in his career while Nowitzki routinely went head-to-head with Tim Duncan.

Wade’s Miami Heat were the Eastern Conference’s representative in the 2006 Finals and James’ Cleveland Cavaliers held court in 2007. They were the future of the NBA and they both played from the perimeter. They battled it out in the regular season but not once did they face each other in the playoffs. The budding rivalry failed to live up to its billing and it ended abruptly after James joined Wade in South Florida after the most infamous “decision” in 2010.

Over in the other conference, Nowitzki and his Mavericks would find themselves in a battle for Western supremacy against Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs several times for more than a decade. Each had won at least once against the other but the Spurs had the upper hand mostly. More than Wade and James, Nowitzki and Duncan had a real rivalry, one that would continue until the latter retired in 2016.

But no one brought out the fire in Nowitzki more than Wade and the Heat.

Wade vs. Nowitzki: The beginning

One of the most exciting Finals series of the 2000s is also one of the most controversial. The 2006 NBA Finals was Wade’s coming out party as the 6-foot-4 guard put the Miami Heat on his broad shoulders and willed them to four straight wins after going down 0-2 in the first two games of the series. In those four games, Wade shot a whopping 73 free throws total, leading many to question the officiating. During the 10-year celebration of the accomplishment, Wade spoke up about how the criticism was unfair to him as a player.

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In one of the most heralded Finals performances in league history, Wade averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.0 blocks a game to handily win the series’ MVP. At the time, he was a third-year guard who was enjoying success at the highest level.

At the other end, Nowitzki was licking his wounds after missing out on a championship ring despite needing only two more wins to do so. He didn’t play as well as he should have despite averages of 22.8 points and 10.8 rebounds in the series. The 7-foot forward shot a woeful 39 percent for the series which says a lot about why the Mavericks lost to the Heat in the first place. If he had made at least 45 percent of his shots, Dallas could have won that series.

Wade took offense to the Mavericks’ suggestion that the officials decided the series. The idea that he wasn’t the main reason why they won the series and that it was an outside source that helped them gain the upper hand was appalling to him, to say the least.

He shot back at the Mavericks’ franchise player by suggesting that Nowitzki was not a good leader and that they could have won the series if not for his lack of leadership skills.

The Finals series and the hostility between the teams afterward became the foundation for a rivalry that would extend further than anyone expected.

The Finals Rematch

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In the 2011 Finals, the Mavericks and Heat would meet again, this time with Wade’s best bud LeBron James and All-Star forward Chris Bosh among his teammates. Nowitzki, on the other hand, had a more well-balanced team with him.

In Game 4, Nowitzki played through a 101-degree fever but he played well enough for the Mavs to win anyway and tie the series at 2-2. Prior to the next game, with the cameras watching them, Wade and James mocked Nowitzki by pretending to cough. If a second Finals matchup didn’t add enough fuel to the rivalry, this certainly poured tons of gasoline to it.

When the Mavericks finally won, their fans, sympathizers and conspiracy theorists felt that it was vindication for having a championship taken from them by the league.

While Wade would go on to win two more titles following this loss, Nowitzki’s team would be splintered and they would never again reach the Finals to this day.

One Last Dance

Eight years later, with a 37-year old Wade and a 40-year old Nowitzki playing perhaps their final season, the two shared an unusually light and friendly moment on the court together just before Valentine’s Day.

The Heat visited the Mavs one final time before Wade officially retires from basketball. Dubbed “One Last Dance,” his farewell tour has brought cheers for the Marquette University alum, something that only the greats receive on visiting home floors. In Dallas, however, as he was about to enter the game, the 13-time All-Star continued to receive boos from Mavs fans who have never forgotten the past.

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To drown out the boos with cheers, coach Rick Carlisle brought Nowitzki off the bench so that the rivals could be on the scorer’s table at the same time. As expected, cheers came raining down from the building and the two entered the game as though they were Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, the most celebrated rivals of the 80s.

After the Heat’s 112-101 win, the future Hall of Famers met at half court to exchange jerseys. The 2018-19 season has seen Wade trade jerseys with players from around the league but this is more memorable, more special to him than most.

This was about mutual respect and the ending of a heated rivalry.

In Their Own Words

ESPN’s Tim McMahon reported the words exchanged between them during the swap.

“I appreciate this, man,” Wade told Nowitzki. “It's an honor. It's an honor, man. Thank you for everything that you've done for my career.”

“One of my best jersey swaps of the year,” Wade said later. “To be able to have that, he's a Hall of Famer, somebody that obviously I've grown to have so much respect for. So, I'm just thankful that he didn't turn me down and say no, so I appreciate it.”

“Like I said, there was some rough, rocky times in our relationship after '06. It went both ways. There was some stuff said we both didn't like, but at the end of the day, we're both competitors. You don't love most of your competition. But we're in this together. We're all family, and I'm happy for him. He had a heck of a career.”

Nowitzki was quick to praise his longtime rival.

“It's a long time coming knowing that he's been doing that,” Nowitzki said. “I'll cherish his jersey, obviously, knowing the great competition we've had for a long, long time. He's a great, great player, one of the greatest guards we've had in our league.

“Like I said, there was some rough, rocky times in our relationship after '06. It went both ways. There was some stuff said we both didn't like, but at the end of the day, we're both competitors. You don't love most of your competition. But we're in this together. We're all family, and I'm happy for him. He had a heck of a career.”

Before the game, Wade expressed how grateful he was for the chance to play in the same era as Nowitzki.

“You appreciate having someone like that that’s a part of your journey, that pushes you,” Wade said via The Associated Press’ Schuyler Dixon. “We’re an important part of each other’s story.”

There was a nervousness from Wade about Nowitzki’s response to the request for a jersey trade but there was nothing to worry about after all. The German-born Nowitzki was happy to accommodate.

“I always say he pushed me to become the player in ‘11 to ultimately win,” he said. “There were some things said after the ‘06 finals, and both sides didn’t love it. There were some times that we didn’t speak much. But I always watched from afar.”

One Last Chance

Dirk Nowitzki, Mavs
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On March 28, the Mavericks take on the Heat once again, and for the final time in their storied careers, Wade and Nowitzki will face off on the court, not as rivals, but as friendly competitors.

The hostilities have been replaced by admiration for each one’s work as they head off into the sunset. Rather than entering the game as their team’s franchise players this season, they have to content themselves with coming off the bench, playing behind players who wouldn’t have been able to keep in step with them during their primes.

Hopefully, we get one last opportunity to see them turn back the clock during a close game with the ball in their hands, with the crowd on their feet, and one of them deciding the outcome of the ballgame while guarding the other on a switch. With the rivalry coming to an end, we deserve a finale like this.