Wade honors victim’s memory
Joaquin Oliver was MIAMI — buried in a jersey bearing Dwyane Wade’s name. So perhaps it was fitting Wade’s best game this season came in sneakers with Oliver’s name on them.
The Miami area is reeling, and will be for a while, in the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. The school reopened Wednesday, the first official day in session since 17 students and teachers were killed in a Valentine’s Day massacre that only cranked up the volume on the national gun debate.
Oliver was one of the 17 victims. His parents buried him in a Wade jersey. Wade is trying to meet the family, hoping to thank them, comfort them, help them, hug them, and almost certainly cry with them.
“That they thought of me in that process, as something that he would have wanted, is mind-boggling,” the Miami Heat guard said.
So is the fact that, again, Wade finds himself trying to solve a problem that apparently cannot be solved. He has been touched by countless tragedies in recent years, ranging from the Trayvon Martin shooting, to the death of his cousin in a shooting in Chicago shortly after he decided to join the Bulls in 2016, and now the senseless killings at the school about an hour north of Miami.
In this social media era, athletes have strength in numbers. The voices of people such as Wade, LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and others have more power than they ever imagined. Wade insists he isn’t going to be silenced about the shooting, and that his friends won’t either.
Put another way, no, as one national television pundit recently suggested James should, he will not ‘shut up and dribble.’
“Being frustrated isn’t going to help,” Wade said. “You’ve got to keep going. You’ve got to look at the people before you and understand that nothing they did happened even close to overnight. The changes that Martin Luther King was trying to make, it took a long time before we could see them. Changes that an individual is trying to make, you do what’s in your heart. When you’re long gone, maybe one day it’ll take hold.”
Wade scored a season-high 27 points Tuesday night, hitting the go-ahead jumper with 5.9 seconds left to lift Miami over Philadelphia 102-101.
On the side of one of his sneaker heels, he scrawled Oliver’s name.
“Some due respect to him and his family,” Wade said.
Some games to watch this weekend:
■ Bucks at Pacers, Friday: It’s the first of two meetings in a four-day span between these Eastern playoff contenders, who split two contests in January.
■ Celtics at Rockets, Saturday: Boston won the first meeting by rallying from 26 down.
■ Hornets at Raptors, Sunday: Charlotte is playing well and thinks a playoff spot is within reach. But Toronto has routed the Hornets three times already. Stat line of the week: ■ Anthony Davis, New Orleans: He has been MVP-worthy of late and had 53 points, 18 rebounds, five blocks and three assists Monday against Phoenix.