Before the 2018-19 season began, future Hall of Fame guard Dwyane Wade announced that after 16 years in the NBA, he would retire at the end of this season. The ensuing months have featured a farewell tour not seen since Kobe Bryant, and although he hasn't announced it yet, Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki is also likely to retire at the end of this season. However, Wade's Heat, unlike Dirk's Mavs are still in the playoff race.
Miami is 27-34, which is good for tenth place in the East, but they are just 1.5 games back of the eight seed, the Charlotte Hornets. Wade talked about appreciating the time he has left in the league, as reported by Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
“It's easy for me,” Wade said. “I've been in the league 16 years. I’ve played on a team that won 15 games and I've played on a team that won championships. This is the NBA. Like I said, the only thing you can do is continue to understand and continue to learn from the mistakes that you make, and you try not to make the same ones every game individually, which you hope brings something better to the team for the next time. Perspective is kept because we're still in a playoff race.”
Wade's season has had a lot of high points already, from jersey swaps to one last All-Star appearance to insane buzzer beaters. Yet Wade is still locked in on the playoffs like it was any other year.
“It's not a secret that it's not going to be easy,” he said. “But at least we're playing for something, you know. And that's all you can ask for at this time. Hopefully we can get a couple guys back and we can have more bodies and more weapons when we go to the end of the season.”
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