Miami-Wade County.

I would like to start with a proclamation of my love for Dwyane Wade.

I’ve always been fascinated with the city of Miami, and I’m gonna blame that on my very normal upbringing in a small town in Central Florida. Miami represented sin, freedom, no curfew, big lizards, more than two lanes, and the propensity to do anything and get away with it. It was just what my ninth-grade heart needed instead of my conservative, private school education and my bedtime. My 10pm bedtime.

Admittedly, I adopted the Miami Heat as my home team in the 2005-2006 era, which, coincidentally was around the time that Dwyane was peaking and leading the team to their first NBA Championship. I remember, distinctly, sitting on my childhood couch that summer during the play-offs, talking to my dad and being grateful for Dwyane’s athleticism and the Miami Heat’s resilience, because it gave my dad and I something to talk about. It was fun watching my dad jolt on the couch, jerk at unexpected times, tense up at the free-throws, and explode at the perimeter shots that went down. We held our breath together as the free-throws became the deciding factor for the ultimate Game 6 win in Dallas. My mom was in the kitchen, smiling at my dad and I, and even though their marriage was strained at the time, we were a family again as Dwyane launched the ball to the top of the American Airlines Center (not to be confused with the incomparable American Airlines Arena) and ran to find his teammates in both jubilance and disbelief that they had surmounted a 3-1 deficit to become the NBA Champions. The odds were against them, but they surmounted, indeed.

Dwyane Wade’s career has always brought me joy. It gave me something to look forward to during my depression in 2012, and it provided consistent conversation between my grandma and I as I tried, to no avail, to teach her the best-of-7 principles of the NBA play-offs. Still, she was elated at the dramatic highs and lows of the play-offs from the 2012 and 2013 seasons, and we celebrated, again as a family, as Ray Allen hit that pivotal three-pointer, assisted to him by Chris Bosh, to send Game 6 against the San Antonio Spurs into overtime. Days later, I danced around Grandma’s house, sending texts and taking phone calls from my family with a pervasive I-Told-You-So tone, because I knew that Dwyane Wade and my Miami Heat would not let me down when the championship was on the line. Champions again for the second year in a row.

In some ways, his career and his personal life have had an inverse relationship, with one excelling as the other declined. As painful as it has been to watch his body deteriorate, it was even more painful when he left Miami in favor of Cleveland and Chicago for a couple seasons, and even more painful to recognize that he would likely never reach an NBA Finals in a Miami Heat uniform again. Even through these realizations, the flourishing of his personal life has been enough to compensate. The birth of his beautiful shady baby, Kaavia James, the comprehension of his youngest son’s perceived sexuality, and his transition into the roles of a compassionate, accepting, and aware husband and father for these new transitions has made me proud. Of course, my confirmation of pride for Dwyane Wade means absolutely nothing, but as a fan and a continued supporter, I am proud to have rooted for someone who has proven to be just as resilient, consistent, humble, and vocal about off-the-court matters as he is on the court.

The punctuation to his career in a Miami Heat uniform tonight was emotional. There have been tributes assigned to him all day today and throughout the duration of the game tonight, and he was deserving of every ounce of love showcased in all of them. I hope that he is at peace with the things that he did and did not accomplish throughout his 16-year career, and I hope that he continues to flourish and find happiness away from the hardwood. I would like to thank him simply for existing, because in his existence, he brought my family together and provided irreplaceable moments of love, joy, and conversation that would not have existed had he not existed. So I’m so happy that he exists.

If you have not seen Budweiser’s tribute to him, get some tissues first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjXKS6ONtLQ, and here is a lovely article on ESPN written by Dan Le Batard detailing how special Wade has been from the very start: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26341303/thank-dwyane-wade. In addition, here is a special website made by the Miami Heat to honor and commemorate Wade’s incredible legacy: https://www.nba.com/heat/wade/l3gacy.

Thank you, Dwyane, for everything that you have so beautifully and admirably represented for the city of Miami and for Black men. I used to honestly believe that Miami-Dade County was named from a combination of the first letters of your first and last name. I don’t think I was too far off. I’m so proud of you and I’ll miss you terribly every October.