Dwyane Wade had made a statement during his last home stand of the season, trotting out a 30-point performance in winning fashion, as the Miami Heat pulled off a 122-99 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. But he had one last game to play, a road game against the Brooklyn Nets to finish out the season.
However that last fall he had in front of the home fans after falling off the scorer's table was one that nearly costed him the fifth triple-double of his NBA career and a last show in front of his best friends: LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul.
“I was very close,” Wade said of potential missing the game, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic. “It’s unfortunate that I had the fall. With the way my knee is set up, it can’t take that kind of fall that I had yesterday. It’s a long story to go into why, but we did a lot before the game. I actually woke up at like 10:00 today and started to get treatment. That’s when I tweeted this is my last game of the season, and I’m doing treatment because I fell. That further lets me know that I made the right decision to retire right now.
“I’m glad I was able to get out there, and my whole goal was to come out and play a couple of minutes and possibly sit down, but then you get out there, and you start having a little fun, and I was able to keep it going, so I’m thankful for playing 36 minutes tonight.”
Wade would play 36 minutes in his last game, but they were an active 36 minutes, as he took 28 shots and made 10 of them en route to a 25-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist performance to close out his career.
His desire to appear one last time, even if it was for the road fans, is the perfect anecdote to describe Wade, a future Hall of Famer known for taking a multitude of falls, and getting right back up after each of them.
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