Don’t try to change Wade’s mind on retirement. Here’s why he’s sticking to his decision
Coaches and players around the league have spent the season questioning Dwyane Wade’s decision to retire.
After Wade scored 11 of his 20 in the fourth quarter to go along with nine rebounds and five assists in Saturday’s win over the Wizards, Washington was the latest team left wondering why Wade has decided to call it a career at the end of the season.
Wizards coach Scott Brooks joked that “the NBA needs to just fine the Miami Heat for allowing him to retire. They should not allow him to retire. He’s too good to retire. I hope he changes his mind.”
But none of these comments have made Wade, 37, reconsider his decision at the end of his 16th NBA season. He’s not changing his mind.
“My decision to retire after the season wasn’t about, can I play or not,” Wade said before the Heat hosted the Magic on Tuesday night. “I can tell you guys, I can play at least two more years. In the role I’m playing, in this organization where I’m comfortable, I definitely can do this role for a few more years. I don’t know how productive each year, but I definitely know health wise that I feel great. But for me, it was just the time that I decided to walk away from it.”
Wade entered Tuesday averaging 14.3 points on 43.8 percent shooting, 3.8 rebounds and four assists in 25.6 minutes this season in a sixth man role. And the Heat still uses Wade in a featured role down the stretch of games, as he leads the team in fourth-quarter shot attempts per game (3.9) and fourth-quarter usage rate (27.5 percent).
A maintenance program because of knee issues forced him to miss 28 games in 2013-14, but he’s missed just three games this season due to injury or illness.
“I’m thankful because I know a few years back I probably was hearing the opposite,” Wade said when asked about coaches and players around the league trying to convince him to continue playing. “People felt like I should have walked away from the game because I wasn’t myself, didn’t look like myself playing through a lot of injuries. But I feel great and I know how to play the game of basketball. Maybe at a different level, but I still know how to play.”
With about two weeks left in the regular season, Wade’s remaining goals are “to finish this season obviously strong, finish it healthy and help my team get in the playoffs.”
“He’s ready to go,” Wade’s close friend and longtime Heat teammate Udonis Haslem said. “People are looking ... ‘Why doesn’t he return because he can still play?’ He’s ready to retire. He’s ready to move on.
“To be able to write the ending of your story the way you would like it, a lot of guys don’t have that opportunity, and he has it right now.”
ROSTER UPDATE
With the expiration of Charles Cooke’s 10-day contract, the Heat’s roster is back down to 13 players. Miami has two weeks from this past Monday to add a 14th player for the final few days of the regular season.
With the G League regular season over, two-way contract players Duncan Robinson and Yante Maten are allowed to spend the rest of the regular season with the Heat regardless of how many NBA days are remaining on their deals. These players are not eligible for the NBA playoffs, however, unless their contracts are converted to a standard NBA deal by the final day of the NBA regular season.
Robinson and Maten are both currently with the Heat. They do not count toward Miami’s standard 15-man roster.
▪ Justise Winslow and Rodney McGruder did not play Tuesday against the Magic.
It marks the sixth consecutive game Winslow has missed because of a right thigh bruise. He’s also still dealing with food poisoning, which forced him to sit out Monday’s practice and kept him away from the team for Tuesday’s contest.
McGruder has now missed five consecutive games with left knee soreness.
This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 9:10 AM.
