Dwyane Wade is one of the best shooting guards in the history of the game. However, while Wade is lauded for being a distinguished player, he has recently complained that his winning the 2006 championship as a 24-year-old isn’t often talked about. Sharing a post to his Instagram story, the Miami Heat legend found the need to highlight this impressive achievement of his to NBA fans.
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According to @amazehoops’ Instagram post, Dwyane Wade winning the 2006 NBA title, in merely his third year in the league, doesn’t get talked about nearly as much as it should. When he stumbled upon the Instagram post, Wade couldn’t help but agree as he shared it with the 20+ million users who follow him, as seen in the tweet below.
The post simply stated:
Dwyane Wade winning an NBA Championship in his 3rd NBA season as the best player on the team .. does not get spoken on enough
Dwyane Wade is often only recognized for the two titles that the Miami Heat won in the Heatles era. However, it is true that enthusiasts and even analysts do not seem to be amazed at the fact that D-Wade led the organization to its first-ever title win in 2006… as only a 24-year-old.
During the 2006 postseason, the 6ft 4” guard co-led, along with Shaquille O’Neal, the Miami Heat to defeat the Chicago Bulls, the New Jersey Nets, and the Detroit Pistons to make their way through to the NBA Finals. After having their backs against the walls, going down 0-2 against the Dallas Mavericks, Wade shifted gears and carried the team on his back.
In the next four games, the combo guard went on to lodge 39.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.5 steals, and 1 block per game, per StatMuse. With the Heat winning all four games, they stunned the Dirk Nowitzki-led Mavs 4-2 to lift the Larry O’Brien trophy. Needless to say, for averaging 34.7 points and 7.8 rebounds, Dwyane Wade was named as the Finals MVP.
All things considered, it is no wonder that Wade is upset that this championship isn’t brought up enough.
Dwyane Wade was the “best version” of himself during the 2006 championship run
The 2005-2006 season was an extremely special one for Dwyane Wade. Apart from averaging 27.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists in the regular season, Wade recorded 28.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game during the postseason, per Basketball Reference.
Wade even sparked the comeback after being 0-2 down in the Finals and also facing a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter of Game 3, recording 42 points and 13 rebounds (eventually winning the series 4-2). Without any doubt, the Flash picked this performance as one of the most memorable games while talking to Sports Illustrated.
“One of the reasons I picked this game [to talk about], is because of the era we line in 2023, in the era of social media, you’re going to have people who say, ‘Ah well, he wasn’t that good,’ because they’ve only seen me toward the end,” Wade says. “This is the beginning. … This was before the injuries started to set in, before the expectations got high. … This is the real, raw version of me. This was the best version of me.”
Wade did have some great performances in his career – averaging a league-high 30.2 points per game in 2008-2009 and winning two more titles in the early 2010s. However, his performance for the most important four-game stretch of his career was unarguably the best he’s ever been.
