The Miami Heat may be one of the youngest franchises in the history of the NBA, but they have been one of the most successful. This is thanks in large part to the contributions of the greatest player in franchise history, Dwyane Wade, who led the team to a championship as early as his third season. However, Wade needed that one bit of final push from his veteran teammate Shaquille O'Neal before going bonkers in the final four games of the 2006 NBA Finals to turn the series on its head.

Wade shed some light on the approach O'Neal used to unlock an even higher gear out of him en route to the Heat's first championship in franchise history.

“I remember the moment. He tried to use a little reverse psychology on me,” Wade recalled in an appearance on 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment. “He put a little fire under me. You know what I mean? He kind of was like, yo, this is your time, I got three [championships], what you going do type of energy but it released me. Once he did that, he was pretty much saying, if you don't do it, we ain't winning.”

Dwyane Wade steps up to win the Heat franchise its first championship

Dwyane Wade was not exactly playing at his best as the Heat went down 2-0 in the series. He was shooting 38.6 percent from the field, and averaging 25.5 points — solid, but not enough for their championship push. But what makes Shaquille O'Neal's words of advice for Wade stand out is that he was coming off a decidedly putrid five-point performance in Game 2 of the 2006 NBA Finals.

“We were down two and Shaq is not playing up to Shaq's standards. He wasn't dominating at the time…When he first came, we sat down and talked about me getting to that Kobe and that Penny [Hardaway] level,” Wade added.

Thankfully for Shaquille O'Neal and the Heat, Dwyane Wade was up to the task. Wade was a completely different player in the final four games of that Finals series. He averaged 39.3 points per game as the Heat rattled off four straight wins, and he shot 50.5 percent from the floor. Moreover, he stressed the Dallas Mavericks' defense past its breaking point, going to the foul line a total of 73 times in the final four games of the series.

Carmelo Anthony then saw what winning his first championship did for Dwyane Wade with regards to how he saw himself. Anthony saw that Wade carried himself like a champion and as an undisputed alpha dog in the years that followed.

“Prior to that championship, D Wade trying to figure it out, who I'm going to be, my personality, how I'm going to fit in, what's my purpose over here. When you win you realize, oh, I'm here, I went and got this,” Anthony said. “After your 2006 championship, you was a different person, a different player, a different person. Your swag was different, your conversation was different and the way that you approached the game was different and the way that you approached players was different.