'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Dwyane Wade announced yesterday that he will be returning to the Miami Heat for one final NBA season before calling it quits, fair and square. This last dance of his will be one hell of an emotional roller-coaster for long-time NBA fans who've grown up on a staple of D-Wade's trademark explosive posterizing dunks.
One of a kind as a player, Wade's playing style resembled that of GOAT Michael Jordan's from his early days more than any other player in history - especially that reliance on his ultra-fast first step that no defender in the league had an answer for.
He was the do-it-all guard for the Heat pretty much like James Harden is for the Rockets today, except he played stellar defence on the other end too. Let's take a look at Wade's 5 most unbreakable Miami Heat franchise records:
#1 Games played - 876
Drafted in 2003, Wade signed his first three contracts with the Heat for a total of 13 straight seasons in South Beach. Despite staying with the franchise for such a long time, Wade was unavailable for 190 of the 1066 regular season games that he was contracted to the franchise for, mainly due to injuries.
The 2007-08 season also saw him miss some games owing to the Heat shutting him down for the rest of the season in order to aid their tanking process.
Wade was traded to the Heat at the All-Star break deadline this year in exchange for a second-round pick. It was believed that Wade was contemplating retirement and he let the Cavs' front office know his state of mind before putting in a trade request.
Overall, Wade leads his nearest competitor Udonis Haslem by 32 games through 13 and a half seasons with the franchise. Alonzo Mourning, who placed 3rd on this list, played a total of 593 games for the franchise.
#2 Minutes played - 31027
Where Wade separates himself from #2 on Heat's games played leaderboard is the total amount of minutes that he's played for the franchise over the years. At 31027 minutes played in total, Wade is well clear of his nearest competitor Haslem by a margin of close to 10000 total minutes (Haslem has taken the floor for 21444 minutes over the course of his career).
Playing heavy minutes right from his rookie season, Wade averaged over 35 minutes per game for each of his first 8 seasons in the league. The successful integration of LeBron and Bosh into the Heat's lineups allowed Wade to take a bit of a backseat, and his workload was reduced slowly but surely during the last 5 seasons of his first Miami Heat go-around.
#3 Total assists - 5009
Given the Heat's lack of elite playmakers through the years, it comes as no surprise that Wade has led them in total assists over the course of several years now. With 5009 assists and counting, Wade has now been the Heat franchise leader in total assists for over 8 years now, passing by Tim Hardaway at 2867 assists in middle of the 2009-10 regular season campaign.
Wade is one of the greatest playmaking guards in pick-and-roll situations in the history of the league, make no mistake. The Wade-and-Shaq pick-and-roll combo was so dominant for the first couple of Shaq's seasons with the Heat mainly because of Wade's elite deceleration and ability to hit the roll man with a sweet bounce pass at the perfect time.
Wade's linkup play with LeBron on the fast break borders on telepathic - his outlet passes to The King are legitimately the stuff of legend.
#4 Total points scored - 20473
This is one of those categories where Wade's superiority in total stats over the rest of the field is way too lopsided. Of all the great scorers to play for the franchise (and the Heat have had their fair share of those), Wade is the only one who played the entirety of his prime years at South Beach.
With 20473 points scored in the regular season, Wade leads the #2 player in this category, Alonzo Mourning, by over 11,000 points (Mourning finished his Heat career with a total of 9459).
At his best, Wade was a terror on the fast break, often swiping the ball out of opposition guards' hands before going on a wrecking-ball attack. He had an extremely well-rounded floater game, and got to the rim with virtually the same ease as LeBron did (as evidenced by their respective career field goal attempt percentages from 0-3 feet).
#5 Free-throws made - 5226
The Flash's other elite scoring ability that set him apart from the field and allowed him to snag the 2008-09 scoring title was his ability to get to the rim with regularity. Through the course of his entire NBA career, Wade averages 7.4 free throw attempts per game, making 5.6 of them for a conversion rate of over 74% from the charity stripe.
Wade was one hell of an underrated ballhandler and combined with his lightning-quick first step, it formed an unguardable combination for any defender attempting to stop him in his heyday.
Wade was a really clutch player too. While there have been numerous questions raised about how he got more free throws than the entire Mavericks team in the last 4 games of the 2006 NBA Finals, it was his playing style and his unguardable play that allowed him to rack up humongous free throw attempt totals.
