DALLAS — "Haters are gonna say I shot 20 free throws."
Easy for Mavericks fans to guess who said this. Dwyane Wade is undoubtedly the biggest nemesis in Mavericks franchise history — take a deep breath, Devin Booker.
Wade was the cause of pain after the Heat rattled off four consecutive wins to claim the 2006 NBA Finals. He also gave them joy in defeat when Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks exacted their revenge in the first year of the Big Three era with LeBron James and Chris Bosh in Miami.
Wade was appreciative of his relationship with the Mavericks faithful in 2019. He reflected on that a bit more on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast earlier this week.
Here’s the question: do you want the good memories or the bad memories first?
Let’s start with 2011.
"What happened in the Mavs series? Y’all were better,” Sharpe said.
“We got out-coached by Rick Carlisle and his staff and we got out-played by Dirk and Jason Terry, but that little JJ Barea. Nobody gives him credit. JJ Barea changed that series. We didn’t have the answer for him,” Wade said. “OK, Dirk, you know what he’s going to do. (Udonis Haslem), make his shots tough, make it hard on him. Try to make him shoot not 50%, make him have an off night. But he’s still probably going to get 20. Jason Terry going right, we can’t stop him. We knew all of these things.
“But nobody was planning for little JJ to come off the bench and do what he did. Not from an MVP as an award, but from an MVP who really pushed that series over, I give it to JJ because we didn’t have an answer for him.”
Wade shouldered the blame for James’ struggles, saying he needed to be a better leader and find ways for James to thrive. At the end of the day, it was all credit to the Mavericks.
“We were more talented, but they were a better team,” Wade said.
Of course, what made those Finals so sweet for the Mavericks was the memory of tribulation from 2006. Up 2-0 on the Heat, and a double-digit lead in the second half of Game 3, the Mavericks were positioned to win their first title five years before it actually happened.
Then Wade took over, slashing to the paint, getting to the foul line and scoring a lot of points.
“I’m sitting there like ‘we ain’t about to get beat like this.’ I know everybody back in Chicago is watching this game. I threw that towel and was thinking of everything. I ain’t going out like this. If I’m going to go out, I’m going out letting these things fly. The ball is about to go up, baby. And then they started going in.
“What I do know is, if we go down 3-0, it’s probably over. So when we came out of that huddle, down 13 at the crib. I was like, well, all right, young fella. All the things you told yourself if you get this opportunity. Yeah, ‘Flash,’ all these cool nicknames. It’s time to do it.”
The 24-year-old Wade averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals in the series. He also made 75 of his 97 free throw attempts.
“We got a couple of calls, we got a couple of shots to fall. Changed the entire series.”
