Wade, Haslem reflect on Heat’s 2012 photo for Trayvon Martin: ‘That was an important moment’
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The Miami Heat’s Big 3 was a revolutionary force on and off the basketball court.
Three superstars came together in their primes to win two championships while advancing to the NBA Finals in each of the four seasons they spent together from 2010 to 2014.
But one of the most memorable moments from that special era in Heat history came in a Detroit hotel, when 13 members of the roster came together to take a photo while all wearing hoodies, with their heads bowed and their hands dug into their pockets just hours before taking on the Detroit Pistons on March 23, 2012.
The photo, which went viral after players shared it on social media, was in response to the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin nearly a month earlier on Feb. 26, 2012.
“We all felt like we had to do something,” said retired Heat legend Dwyane Wade, who was one of the driving forces behind the photo. “It wasn’t about trying to be in any public politic stuff. It wasn’t the shine of it. It was literally as fathers, as young Black men. We saw ourselves in Trayvon, we saw our kids in Trayvon. We just knew we had a bigger responsibility.”
Martin was fatally shot while on a visit with his father in Sanford. The unarmed Black teenager was walking back from a convenience store with candy while wearing a hoodie when he was shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.
Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter after claiming self-defense in the incident.
With the 10-year anniversary of Martin’s death just days away, Wade remembers the emotions that led to the Heat’s photo.
“I think everyone had their different nerves,” Wade said recently to the Miami Herald. “I think more so than anything, there was a lot of rage and a lot of anger. I remember when we were deciding what to do and we were talking about setting up for this photo. We couldn’t take the photo, so our coaches had to take the photo. Somebody had to take it for us. I remember just seeing the support from our coaching staff. At that time, it wasn’t really as popular for NBA players to speak out online on those issues outside of sports. But just to have that confidence from everybody in there like, ‘Listen, whatever you guys want to do, we’re riding with it and we support it.’ ”
Udonis Haslem, who was also a part of the Heat’s roster when the 2012 photo was taken, remembers being “conflicted” on how he wanted the Heat’s message to be delivered following Martin’s death.
“In a position where you have a platform and you want to make a stand and you want to be a leader and you want to use your platform for the right things,” Haslem said recently to the Miami Herald. “You understand people in your community, people in your backyard are struggling with the things that are going on. For us, when things get a little bit murky and you get a little confused, you just do what’s right. You just simplify it. There’s beauty in simplicity and you do what’s right.
“I think the right thing to do was stand up and take a stand. Not only for Trayvon and his family, but for all African Americans who are struggling with racial injustice and all these different circumstances out here.”
Two members of the Heat’s Big 3, LeBron James and Wade, were the ones who came up with the idea for the photo. The message they wanted to get across was an important one.
“We were a team mostly full of Black people,” Wade said. “Once that hoodie went up, you couldn’t tell if it was Dwyane Wade or LeBron James. We were just another Black person wearing a hoodie. For us, it was a big statement because we were the team that everyone hated or loved, whatever the case may be. But if we put our hoodies on, we’re no different than the 17-year-old young man that was just murdered.
“We knew at that time we were the most-watched team in the world and people had been talking about us the last two years every day. So let’s really talk about something that has meaning, something that we all believe and something that we wanted to make sure didn’t go unnoticed and unseen, and shed some light on it. That’s kind of how it happened.”
Martin also was a member of the South Florida community, as he was in 11th grade at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High in northern Miami-Dade when he died. That made the news even more personal for Heat players.
As a Miami native, Haslem knew Martin’s family and went on to invite them to attend Heat home games. They have remained connected over the years.
“It’s crazy. We didn’t think when we were doing it at that time,” Haslem said as he reflected back to 2012. “We didn’t know people would still be reflecting on that photo and that moment 10 years later. But I think, being African-American men with a platform and it being so close to me and my backyard, we wanted to get the biggest impact. We wanted to maximize the reach and the impact of that one photo. It got the attention that we wanted it to get because 10 years later people are still talking about it, still reflecting on it. There has been some change, but there’s still more to come.”
It’s a photo that lives on in the memories of those involved, but Wade and Haslem don’t have the photo displayed anywhere. Ten years later, they may reconsider that.
“That might be an impactful photo to have,” Wade said. “I know we all try to put great moments around our homes or on our walls or whatever the case may be. But to me, that was a very important moment. That was an important moment in sports and a huge moment in our life and what we represented as a team in that era. That moment right there was bigger than any championships that we have. We represented something bigger than just on the basketball floor.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 1:00 AM.
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