“Dwyane Wade, Get Mean, Get Hungry”: How Shaquille O’Neal Motivated the Heat to Comeback From a Deficit in the 2006 NBA Finals

The Dallas Mavericks were playing it smart by triple-teaming Shaquille O’Neal in the first two games of the 2006 NBA Finals series. As a result, the Miami Heat big man merely averaged 11 points and 6.5 rebounds.

The great defense that Avery Johnson’s boys played against the Diesel, saw them take a 2-0 lead. While O’Neal wasn’t allowed to make a great impact, he turned to Dwyane Wade, demanding the 24-year-old to “take over”. In his book, Shaq Uncut, the dominant center revealed the words with which he ignited a spark in D-Wade. O’Neal wrote:

“DWade reminded me a little bit of myself when I was in that first Finals against Hakeem. He was being too nice, too respectful of the opponent. I told him (Dwyane Wade), “Get mean. Get hungry. You can take over this series.” They were fronting me and backing me, so I couldn’t do shit. DWade needed to step up and take over. I told him, “All we’ve got to do is win one game and then we’ve got them. Trust me, I know those boys from Dallas. They’re going to get tight. Jason Terry never did like pressure.””

Shaquille O’Neal and co. took offense to Mark Cuban planning the parade after going up 2-0

After those first two games, almost every analyst was certain that Dirk Nowitzki and co. would end up lifting the franchise’s first-ever championship. Mark Cuban, the team’s owner, was so confident in his boys that he even published the route of the championship parade in the papers.

Getting hold of the same, Pat Riley was fired up. The Mavericks’ lead did not deter him at all. Instead, it only made him angrier at his own squad. According to Shaq in his book Shaq Uncut, the then-Heat head coach had a dramatic breakdown in front of his players. Revealing that Riley’s speech got everyone riled up, the Hall-Of-Famer further stated:

“The Dallas owner, Mark Cuban, did us a huge favor. They were up 2–0 and he started talking about planning a parade. They actually published the route in the paper. Pat got ahold of it before I did. He came into the locker room all pissed off. He was banging the table and throwing chairs and handing out body slams and shouting, “After all we’ve been through, fifteen strong, are we going to give up? This fucking guy is planning a goddamn parade.” A little bit of it was for show, but he got his point across. I got my boys GP and Antoine and Posey riled up, and DWade took care of the young guys, and we were good to go.”

D-Wade and Shaq’s stats from the 2006 Finals

In that series, the Big Aristotle averaged 13.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game. However, it was The Flash who was the Finals MVP. After recording 25.5 points in the first two games, Dwyane Wade took things to a different level altogether.

Leading the Florida-based franchise to 4 straight wins, the youngster had put up 39.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists. Across the entire series, Dwyane finished with a staggering 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists.