ducks
06-21-2006, 09:08 AM
`Best feeling I've ever had in my life'
Dwyane Wade, who averaged 34.7 points in the series, shook off a slow start to score 36 in the Heat's Game 6 win and earn the Finals MVP award.
BY BARRY JACKSON
[email protected]
DALLAS - It was, quite simply, a spectacular punctuation for a spectacular player.
Dwyane Wade, who has done everything for the Heat in these playoffs except drive the bus to the games, culminated a breathtaking postseason run with 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocked shots. And he did it after going scoreless in the first 10 minutes.
Appropriately, the game ended with Wade throwing the ball into the air in jubilation, after he secured the rebound on Jason Terry's missed three-pointer that could have tied the score.
''He's the best player ever,'' Shaquille O'Neal said. ``I knew the first time I saw him he was something special.''
Afterward, Wade was named Finals MVP in a coronation about as predictable as the sun rising today.
''It's the best feeling I've ever had in my life,'' Wade said. ``I don't want to say I put this team on my back. We did it together. Not once did this team not believe in each other. We always stuck together.''
Wade said he was driven by his ''will to prove people wrong'' -- including Mavericks players who questioned his jump shot before the series. ''I don't know where they got that from,'' Wade said. ``I proved to them I could shoot.''
He also was motivated by a Dallas Morning News column after Game 1 that said the Heat was not a worthy opponent. ''It blew my mind,'' he said.
As usual, Wade made so many of the right plays in the fourth quarter, even with the Mavericks sending second defenders toward him and trying to deny him the ball at times. In the quarter, he hit two jumpers, hit seven free throws, corralled six rebounds and delivered a nifty pass to James Posey for a three-pointer that put the Heat up six with 3:43 left. (Heat coach Pat Riley called that the biggest play of the game.)
Wade hit four free throws in the final 26.2 seconds.
''I am a big dreamer,'' Wade said, recalling how he would watch Michael Jordan in past championship series, then try to do the same thing in his backyard as a youngster. ``You've got to dream in life to know what you want.''
Wade said the comparisons to Jordan, ``my role model, are flattering, but there will never be another Jordan.''
Wade closed the series averaging 34.7 points -- third-highest for a player in his first Finals -- as well as 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
With 16 free throws in 21 attempts in Game 6, Wade finished with 75 free throws made, the most ever in a six-game NBA Finals. Previous high: 67, by George Mikan, for Minneapolis in 1950.
Wade's 208 points were the second-most by a player in his first six Finals games (Rick Barry had 245 in 1966) and 38 behind Michael Jordan's record for most points in a six-game Finals (set in 1993).
''He just took it to another level,'' Riley said of Wade. ''Players like that are very hard to come by. He's making his legacy in his third year. We're so blessed to have him. I've never had a player like this who at times can beat five guys, and then at the same times, make great plays'' to teammates.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/basketball/14865836.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Dwyane Wade, who averaged 34.7 points in the series, shook off a slow start to score 36 in the Heat's Game 6 win and earn the Finals MVP award.
BY BARRY JACKSON
[email protected]
DALLAS - It was, quite simply, a spectacular punctuation for a spectacular player.
Dwyane Wade, who has done everything for the Heat in these playoffs except drive the bus to the games, culminated a breathtaking postseason run with 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, four steals and three blocked shots. And he did it after going scoreless in the first 10 minutes.
Appropriately, the game ended with Wade throwing the ball into the air in jubilation, after he secured the rebound on Jason Terry's missed three-pointer that could have tied the score.
''He's the best player ever,'' Shaquille O'Neal said. ``I knew the first time I saw him he was something special.''
Afterward, Wade was named Finals MVP in a coronation about as predictable as the sun rising today.
''It's the best feeling I've ever had in my life,'' Wade said. ``I don't want to say I put this team on my back. We did it together. Not once did this team not believe in each other. We always stuck together.''
Wade said he was driven by his ''will to prove people wrong'' -- including Mavericks players who questioned his jump shot before the series. ''I don't know where they got that from,'' Wade said. ``I proved to them I could shoot.''
He also was motivated by a Dallas Morning News column after Game 1 that said the Heat was not a worthy opponent. ''It blew my mind,'' he said.
As usual, Wade made so many of the right plays in the fourth quarter, even with the Mavericks sending second defenders toward him and trying to deny him the ball at times. In the quarter, he hit two jumpers, hit seven free throws, corralled six rebounds and delivered a nifty pass to James Posey for a three-pointer that put the Heat up six with 3:43 left. (Heat coach Pat Riley called that the biggest play of the game.)
Wade hit four free throws in the final 26.2 seconds.
''I am a big dreamer,'' Wade said, recalling how he would watch Michael Jordan in past championship series, then try to do the same thing in his backyard as a youngster. ``You've got to dream in life to know what you want.''
Wade said the comparisons to Jordan, ``my role model, are flattering, but there will never be another Jordan.''
Wade closed the series averaging 34.7 points -- third-highest for a player in his first Finals -- as well as 7.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists.
With 16 free throws in 21 attempts in Game 6, Wade finished with 75 free throws made, the most ever in a six-game NBA Finals. Previous high: 67, by George Mikan, for Minneapolis in 1950.
Wade's 208 points were the second-most by a player in his first six Finals games (Rick Barry had 245 in 1966) and 38 behind Michael Jordan's record for most points in a six-game Finals (set in 1993).
''He just took it to another level,'' Riley said of Wade. ''Players like that are very hard to come by. He's making his legacy in his third year. We're so blessed to have him. I've never had a player like this who at times can beat five guys, and then at the same times, make great plays'' to teammates.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/basketball/14865836.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp