South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Words of honor
Wade humbled to learn he has inspired Wizards’ All-Star guard Beal
MIAMI — Along the way in his 16th and final NBA season, Miami Heat star guard Dwyane Wade will encounter moments like this. Moments where he learns his impact on the game of basketball reaches further than he even knew.
A postgame jersey swap for Wade has become the norm this season, but Friday night’s exchange with Washington Wizards AllStar guard Bradley Beal was special. On the heels of Beal’s 33-point performance in the Heat’s 115-109 victory at AmericanAirlines Arena, he revealed something to Wade.
“He’s part of the reason that I wear No. 3,” said Beal, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard and Florida alum. “For the first time, I told him that [Friday] night. I’ve never told him that in all the years that I have played against him.”
After the Heat’s Saturday practice ahead of a Sunday game in Atlanta against the Hawks, Wade reflected on what it means to learn he had such an influence on Be al, who earned his first All-Star Game appearance last season.
“When he told me in that moment, I was appre- ciative,” Wade said. “Then, later on, you get time to think about the impact that you’re able to make on the game of basketball and younger players — and younger players that have turned into young stars in our league.
“To be able to be a part of their growth in any way, I’m humbled. … I just appreciate him for keeping it in all these years and telling me at this time when it mattered to be able to hear those words as my career is winding down.”
It got Wade to thinking of some of the guards that were in their prime as he entered the league and shaped his development.
“I’m humbled by it because I know those guys when I came into the league,” Wade said. “You know, I had the [Allen] Iversons and the Kobe Bryants of the world — and those guys meant a lot to my growth when I was young. Just a special moment.”
Beal’s comment and the fact that he was inspired by Wade were felt by Erik Spoelstra too.
“I had goosebumps when I read that,” the Heat coach said. “You see a No. 3 and you wonder, and then you realize ,‘ Oh, boy. Dwyane had such an impact like right away out of the gates in his career.’ These guys were young watching him in the Finals.
“It’s a point I keep on making to our players. You want to be remembered, but you have to win. Dwyane has been to five Finals, three championship rings, he’s sacrificed a lot to be able to be a part of winning programs.”
Winning is one of Beal’s major takeaways from Wade’s career.
“It means a lot to be able to have his jersey because he has three championships,” Beal said Friday. “He’s one of the best two guards to ever play, and I’m happy that I was able to compete against him for seven years.”
As one of the league’s top players over the past decade and a half, Wade feels it’s an obligation for top NBA players to continuously pass down to those that come behind them.
“It’s our duty and our job to pass down to the next generation, to inspire the next generation,” he said. “A lot of our dreams, a lot of our visions becoming basketball players come from the guys that you see. Growing up obviously in Chicago, I watched everything that [Michael] Jordan did. I wanted to go out and emulate those things. Without that, without hav- ing the vision of those kind of players, I don’t know if I had the vision to become Dwyane Wade, the basketball player.”
Wade said previous interactions with Beal, competing mostly in the Southeast Division together, were “just respectful banter back and forth over the years.” Beal has spent all of his first seven seasons in Washington and Wade spent all but a season and a half of that time in Miami.
The Wade-Beal jersey swap helped put things in perspective on just how impactful Wade’s career has been, and he’s looking forward to finding out more stories about inspiration he has provided.
“Hopefully I inspired more Bradley Beals of the world,” Wade said. “If I didn’t inspire, then I didn’t. Hopefully more people liked my game than they didn’t like my game — because I gave everything I had to it, especially when I was younger. I just gave it everything that I had, and it was good enough, hopefully, to have Bradley Beal and other players in the NBA look up to me in any capacity.”