Subscribe
Follow Us
The Miami Heat are targeting a Feb. 22 game against the Cleveland Cavaliers as the potential date for the retirement of Dwyane Wade’s iconic No. 3 jersey, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Wade's jersey will become the fifth in team history to be retired, joining Alonzo Mourning's No. 33, Tim Hardaway's No. 10, Shaquille O'Neal's No. 32 and most recently Chris Bosh's No. 1.
However, unlike the Heat's previous jersey retirements, the Heat will prepare a more reserved ceremony at that game, planning to celebrate with Wade the night prior to the event after returning from a Feb. 20 road game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Wade retired at the end of the last season as the Heat's all-time leading scorer, an integral member of all three of the team's NBA titles, its first in 2006, then again in 2012 and 2013 in the company of longtime friends Bosh and LeBron James.
The Robbins, Illinois native will become the second of The Big 3 members to be immortalized in the rafters, as James is the last remaining, now in his 17th NBA season and his second with the Los Angeles Lakers.
James' No. 6 will eventually be raised once he calls it wraps on his professional career, through it might be a while before The King laces them up. James could have his jersey retired in three different arenas, bound to get a similar treatment from the Lakers and his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Feb. 22 potential date will come in the middle of two home games for James, who could make the charter flight to Miami to witness the jersey retirement of his longtime friend and former teammate.
Wade wore No. 3 during his two tenures with the Heat tenures, the first spanning from the moment he was drafted in 2003 to his 2016 free-agency departure to his hometown Chicago Bulls.
