Retired Miami Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade was just another kid from Chicago, Illinois, before south Florida turned into “Wade County.” And as a Chicagoan growing up in the 1990s, there was no such bigger icon than Bulls legend Michael Jordan, the central figure of ESPN's 10-part ongoing docu-series The Last Dance.
Wade, like many others, saw Jordan and the Bulls as an inspiration growing up with dreams of playing professional ball.
Per Ira Winderman in the South Florida Sun Sentinel:
“If it was not for the Chicago Bulls, and especially the team in ’90-91, I would never have had the vision to become the player that I wanted to be, Michael Jordan. So I never would have had the vision to become that guy. And I also never would have had the vision to understand what it means to win a championship for a city. Because the Bulls winning those championships back then meant — in our home we might not have had a lot, we might not have ate that night, we might not have had heat that night — the nights the Bulls won, it brought us together.”
Wade ended up winning a few championships of his own—claiming three to his NBA legacy, the first in just his third season then capping it off with back-to-back titles alongside All-Star forwards LeBron James and Chris Bosh in Miami's most shining moment.
The Heat certainly has a lot of their good fortune in the last decade-plus thanks to Wade, and Wade certainly owes it to Jordan's greatness with the Bulls.
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