- 6 weeks ago
Dwyane Wade's rookie season for the Miami Heat was a long, thrilling breakout to punctuate Wade's unconventional rise to becoming a top draft pick. Then came the real chance for a breakout: In his first ever playoff game, Wade held the ball with seconds remaining and a chance to help Miami win it at the buzzer against the New Orleans Hornets. Before we see how he handled that moment, we should rewind.
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00:00It's April 18th, 2004.
00:03We're in Miami for game one of a first round playoff series
00:06between the Miami Heat and the New Orleans Hornets.
00:10The game is tied and the Hornets need just one stop
00:13to send this game to overtime and maybe steal a road win.
00:17To prevent that outcome, the Heat needs someone here
00:20to take and make a big shot, but whom?
00:23Before we see what happens,
00:25we need to learn about the intersecting trajectories
00:27of these two franchises in flux,
00:30and we need to meet some important characters.
00:32We need to rewind.
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00:52If you've zoned out on the NBA for a few years,
00:58some of the names on these uniforms
01:00might have you second-guessing yourself.
01:02Fronts and backs.
01:03It's all connected.
01:04I can explain.
01:07So first of all, yes, a handful of guys
01:10on each of these teams used to be on the other team.
01:13These two teams have overlapped a lot over the last decade,
01:16and also the Lakers.
01:18Let's do a diagram.
01:19Okay.
01:20In 1995, Alonzo Mourning was the best player
01:23on the Charlotte Hornets.
01:25Glenn Rice was the best player on the Heat,
01:27and the Lakers were over here.
01:29Cheap-ass, creepy-ass goblin man George Shin,
01:32owner of the Hornets,
01:33didn't wanna pay Mourning his superstar center,
01:35so he traded Mourning to the Heat.
01:38Glenn Rice was part of that deal.
01:40There you go.
01:41In 1996, the Hornets realized,
01:43hey, wait, now we don't have a good center anymore.
01:46We need to get one.
01:47So they traded their brand new draft pick,
01:50Kobe Bryant, to the Lakers for center Vlade Divas.
01:53So there's that.
01:54By 1999, the Lakers were like,
01:56wow, Kobe is really good.
01:58He's our star shooting guard of the future.
02:00We probably don't need our previous
02:02star shooting guard of the future, Eddie Jones.
02:04So they traded Eddie Jones to the Hornets for Glenn Rice.
02:08In 2000, Eddie Jones was like,
02:11I don't actually wanna be on the Hornets,
02:13so the Hornets traded him to the Heat for Jamal Mashburn and PJ Brown.
02:18I'm oversimplifying things, but the point here is there's been a lot of cross-pollination,
02:22and the Hornets and Heat kinda helped build the Lakers, who, you know, have since become three-time champions.
02:28Surely that's the last time we do business with the Lakers guys, right?
02:32Right, guys?
02:33Anyway, after a couple big trades with each other,
02:37the Hornets and Heat met in a first-round playoff series in 2001.
02:41The Hornets won that series in a sweep.
02:43Those Hornets kicked ass.
02:45Even before doing more deals with the Heat,
02:47Charlotte had a young core featuring charismatic bowling ball point guard Baron Davis
02:52and super-smooth big man Jamal McGlure.
02:54And then Brown brought them a touch of veteran savvy in the front court,
02:58and Mashburn, who had become kind of a third banana in Miami,
03:02hopped back into a starring role quite comfortably.
03:05So comfortably, in fact, that Mashburn became the rare player of his caliber
03:10to sign a long-term contract to stay in Charlotte.
03:14But about that, George Shin wore out his welcome in Charlotte.
03:19While he was found not liable for multiple claims of sexual assault,
03:23his admissions in court made scandalous headlines,
03:27and also he tried to make taxpayers fund an arena.
03:30But Shin refused to give up control of his team,
03:33not even to basically the ideal investor,
03:36and instead fled town with Charlotte's beloved NBA franchise in tow.
03:41He didn't necessarily prefer to move the Hornets to New Orleans,
03:45that's just where he and they ended up in 2002.
03:49Last season, 0-2-0-3, was new city, same great taste.
03:54Davis signed up long term, Mashburn made his first career all-star team at age 30,
04:00the Hornets brought playoff basketball to their new city,
04:03and, well, then kind of a flame out in the first round.
04:06This year was new-ish city, not so great taste anymore.
04:10Shin approved the firing of long-time Hornets coach Paul Silas,
04:14then literally hid from him.
04:16Then New Orleans hired Tim Floyd for some reason,
04:19and he has had a lot of trouble connecting with his team.
04:22Baron Davis did hit a new level of excellence this year,
04:25establishing himself as one of the best point guards in the whole league.
04:29But he has also had his issues with Floyd, and he missed a bunch of games to injury,
04:34which actually makes him luckier than his co-star.
04:37Jamal Mashburn's season has been almost a complete wash because of knee problems.
04:42We will not be seeing him in this series.
04:44Davis is playing, but you can tell he's in pain.
04:47And if your response to the above is,
04:49okay, that all sounds bad, but hey, the Hornets are still a playoff five seed,
04:54I will point you to the Eastern Conference standings.
04:57New Orleans finished this season exactly 500.
05:00In the East, that gets you a decent playoff spot.
05:03In the West, not even close.
05:05And next year, they'll be in the West.
05:08Yeah, the NBA is backfilling the George Shin fiasco
05:11by adding an expansion franchise in Charlotte next season,
05:15because there should be an NBA team in Charlotte.
05:17That new team will be in the Eastern Conference,
05:20which means someone has to move West,
05:22and obviously that's going to be the team that deliberately fled westward.
05:26Contending's about to get way, way tougher next year.
05:3041 wins won't cut it anymore.
05:32This is a middling team that feels like a glass half empty.
05:36But hey, mid meets mid in the NBA playoffs.
05:40The five seed Hornets are trying to shut down the four seed Heat.
05:43Who specifically do they need to stop?
05:46Until recently, the obvious answer would be former Hornet Alonzo Mourning.
05:51Since the Charlotte Hornets dealt Zoe to Miami,
05:54he became the greatest player in Heat history to date,
05:57the centerpiece of all their best teams.
06:00But in 2000, when he was just 30 years old,
06:03a diagnosis of kidney disease rocked Mourning's life and his career.
06:07Mourning missed most of the next season, returned for a trying 0-1-0-2 campaign,
06:12then found out right before training camp last season that he wasn't in condition to keep playing.
06:17Mourning finally left the Heat last summer to sign with the New Jersey Nets,
06:22only to learn that he needed a kidney transplant and announce his retirement.
06:26This is Miami's first playoff series in a long time without Mourning
06:30or star point guard Tim Hardaway.
06:32And of course, Jamal Mashburn is on the opposing team.
06:35So this is an extremely compelling play call right here.
06:38In this new era of Heat playoff basketball, who do you go to?
06:43Former Hornet Eddie Jones is over here.
06:45He's the leading scorer, and aside from Brian Grant, who's more of a rebounder,
06:50the only veteran on the floor with playoff experience.
06:53Which is to say, the Heat are young.
06:56They weren't supposed to be here.
06:58Their middling record looks like a glass half full.
07:02The Heat truly sucked in 0-2-0-3.
07:05They won 25 games.
07:07That team had some pretty inexperienced players logging major minutes,
07:11chief among them 2002 lottery pick Caron Butler.
07:15Butler had an awesome rookie season, but also the Heat depended way too much on their rookie.
07:20This offseason, Miami got even younger.
07:23Their biggest signing was Lamar Odom, a tall and dexterous 24-year-old
07:28with a ton of potential that he didn't quite fulfill with the LA Clippers.
07:32These 0-3-0-4 Heat didn't look doomed or anything.
07:36They just looked young and unproven and not particularly competitive,
07:39even in the weak Eastern Conference.
07:41And that was before the bombshell dropped.
07:44Days before the season began, long-time coach slash executive Pat Riley resigned from those
07:50coaching duties.
07:52Miami's one reliable advantage, a legendary coach, suddenly gave way to Stan Van Gundy.
07:58A long-time assistant, brother of the famous Jeff,
08:01suddenly elevated to his first ever NBA head coaching job.
08:05Everyone had good stuff to say about Stan, but the last-minute switcheroo didn't exactly
08:10buoy expectations for this young Heat roster.
08:14And indeed, the new guy looked kind of overwhelmed at the outset.
08:17Miami lost its first seven games of this season.
08:20The last one was a blowout defeat at the hand of coach Stan's own brother.
08:24They entered the All-Star break 22-32, did not do anything at the trade deadline,
08:30and carried a losing streak into March.
08:33Then something clicked.
08:36Over their last 21 games, Miami went 17-4, including a perfect home record and a seven-game
08:43win streak capped by skip-to-my-loo Rafer Alston's buzzer-beating overtime three against the Mavs.
08:50Why did the Heat get so good so fast?
08:53There's no one answer.
08:55Players point to Van Gundy's attention to detail.
08:58Odom calls his coach the freak, and he means that fondly.
09:02Van Gundy would just as soon point to his players, and you take your pick.
09:06The reliable vets get credit.
09:09Karan Butler gets credit, playing a new role and working through some injuries in his second season.
09:14Surprise bench guys get credit, too.
09:16Alston is a streetball legend turned journeyman who's having a breakout season in Miami.
09:22Udonis Haslam was undrafted out of Florida and playing in France last year,
09:27and suddenly that rookie is an important contributor.
09:30Odom is playing more and more power forward this season after mostly competing at small forward in
09:35LA, and he has looked awesome maneuvering against bigger players.
09:39The newcomers had a career-best season with his new team.
09:42Odom just showed his unique value on the last possession, successfully tracking the smaller Baron
09:48Davis on a switch, then swatting his tie-breaking attempt at the rim.
09:54This is a cool squad, top to bottom.
09:56Miami finished with 42 wins, just barely above 500.
10:00But this is the fullest half-full glass you've ever seen.
10:04They are young and fun, and they are going places.
10:06Mediocrity never tasted so sweet.
10:09It is very rare for a team that started as poorly as the Heat did to play postseason ball,
10:15but here the Heat are with home court advantage.
10:18Then again, maintaining home court is very much in question if they can't get a bucket right here.
10:23You've met the kickout options here.
10:26Jones could make something happen on the right wing,
10:28while Butler and Odom have created looks for each other on the strong side.
10:32But as this point guard crosses Davis into oblivion,
10:36I'm wondering if maybe this guy might take it himself.
10:40He might. This is no ordinary point guard. This is Dwayne Wade.
10:48When the Heat bottomed out last season, their consolation prize was a spin in one of the most
10:53anticipated draft lotteries ever. But the Heat did not win the chance to draft LeBron James,
10:59and the Pistons leaping up the draft order meant Miami didn't even snag one of the foremost consolation
11:04prizes. The Heat drafted fifth and used that pick to draft Dwayne Wade.
11:10So who was Dwayne Wade as of last summer?
11:13For one thing, he was by far the oldest and shortest player taken in the top five,
11:18the only true guard and the only college upperclassman of the bunch.
11:22Wade's path to the top five was similarly unusual.
11:26Wade had a late growth spurt and trouble qualifying for a scholarship,
11:30so he wasn't even in the top 100 of most national rankings in his class.
11:36Within his home state of Illinois, eyeballs were much more fixated on Darius Miles,
11:41Wade's former AAU teammate who jumped straight to the NBA.
11:46But Wade had serious scoring talent, so he at least drew recruiting interest within the region.
11:52Wade and his high school rival, O'Darty Blankson, committed as a tandem to
11:56Tom Crean's Marquette Golden Eagles. Wade sat his whole freshman year for academic reasons,
12:02and then in the 01-02 season, whoa. Wade's slashing ability and mid-range touch instantly made him
12:10one of the top scorers in Conference USA. He led Marquette to its first NCAA tournament since 1997.
12:17Suddenly, people were talking about Dwayne Wade as a potential pro, but he wasn't inclined to test the
12:23draft waters just yet, especially since his knee required surgery right after that season ended.
12:29Sticking around paid off. Wade's junior season made him one of the top scorers in all of college
12:35basketball, a first-team All-American and a March Madness legend. Wade carried three-seed Marquette
12:42all the way to its first Final Four since the 1970s. His best performance in that run came during an
12:48Elite Eight upset of Kentucky. Biggest game, biggest stage of his career to date, and Wade dropped a 29-point
12:55triple-double in a blowout. That did the trick. In a draft headlined by big teenagers, a 6'4
13:03upperclassman from Marquette became a prospective lottery pick. Wade at one point sounded keen on going
13:09from Marquette to the nearby Milwaukee Bucks, who had the eighth pick. That seemed plausible for a bit,
13:15with the main question being one of position. Wade seemed too small to play shooting guard in the
13:20NBA, but he profiled as much more of a scorer than a point guard. Could he learn a new position? Pat
13:27Riley decided it did not matter. He deemed Wade a combo guard and took him with the fifth pick,
13:33higher in the order than almost any mock draft projected him. Riley envisioned lineups chock full of
13:38scoring guards where everyone could share ball handling duties. And then, you know, Pat made the rotation
13:44someone else's problem. Thankfully for Coach Van Gundy, Wade has been less of a problem for him
13:50than for Miami opponents. They call him the problem child. The kid is quick and strong and acrobatic,
13:56and thus extremely difficult to contain off the dribble. It doesn't really matter if he's a point guard or
14:02not, although it is certainly relevant here. Coach Van Gundy got to call a play here, and then he put the ball in the
14:08hands of the rookie Wade. Is he looking for Wade to make a read and find someone else? Or is he really
14:15going to let a rookie attempt a game-winning shot in his first ever playoff game? A lot hinges on this
14:21moment. Home court advantage, the continued joy of this springtime heat resurgence, the Hornets' chances
14:29of making a run before they get punted to the tough conference, and of course, the rapidly rising reputation of the guy with the ball.
14:36Let's see what happens. Welcome to a moment in history.
14:53But wait! The Hornets have one more chance to score. Okay, never mind. Heat win. Good job, Dwayne.
15:00Heat win. Game run!
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