Dwyane Wade: Father Time is Undefeated

There are a few things in this world that are inevitable.  You must pay taxes.  Father time catches us all.  Dwyane Wade has been one of the best players in the NBA during his 10 year career.  During the course of his career he has been dubbed "Flash" because of his ability to strike opposing defensing with quickness and ferocity.  He may not want to admit it, but his days of dominating a game for 40 minutes are coming to a halt.  Because of health issues, he is unable to sustain his greatness quarter after quarter, game after game.  Ironically, he is only able to do it in "flashes."

In 2003, Wade entered the NBA in the highly touted draft class that featured Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh.  He was not touted as the the best player of the class.  I think it is safe to say that he was considered to be the third best player of the group.  Ironically, however, he was the first player of the group to win a championship.  He was the first player from the group to win a NBA Finals MVP award as well.  He will be a first ballot hall of fame selection once his playing days are done. 

D. Wade has a chance to be remembered as the 3rd best shooting guard in the history of the game behind MJ and Kobe.  That is a great position to be in.  However, at the current moment, he has his hands full with the Spurs.  To his credit, he played much better in games 4 and 5.  That said, his ability to continuously exhibit sustained excellence is not as it once was.  Maybe his problems are related to his injured knee and not father time.  Maybe he will bounce back once he has an offseason to heal.  I hope that is the case.  Because if he is unable to be the D. Wade of old, the Miami Heat will not win multiple championships with the current team.

I hope D. Wade is smarter than some of the superstars before him who held on to the game much longer than they should have.  Remember Gary Payton in his latter years?  What about Jason Kidd?  Shaq?  These guys should have left the game when they still had superstar talent left in them.  As a basketball fan, it is hard to watch a former superstar struggle to do the things on the court that he once did so effortlessly.  Let's hope that Wade gracefully bows out like Barry Sanders did. 


Peace