Vintage Dwyane Wade came out Tuesday night with a game-winning bucket, while honoring one of the students killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
With Joaquin Oliver’s name written on his sneakers, Wade scored 15 of Miami’s final 17 points, including his first game-winning shot since 2012, to down the 76ers 102-101 at home.
Wade finished the night with a season-high 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting.
Oliver, one of the 17 victims in the Valentine’s Day shooting, was buried in Wade’s No. 3 Heat jersey. Wade’s now trying to meet with the slain student’s family, hoping to thank them, comfort them, listen to them, hug them and almost certainly cry with them.
“That they thought of me in that process, as something that he would have wanted, is mind-boggling,” Wade said.
This is not the first time Wade’s been touched by tragedies, ranging from the Trayvon Martin shooting, to the death of his cousin in a shooting in Chicago shortly after he decided to join the Bulls in 2016, and now the senseless killings at the school about an hour north of Miami.
“You really can’t put that in words. You hurt for the family,” Wade told reporters after the game. “If you ever get the opportunity to speak to them, you just try to hope the time where he was alive that you were able to bring some type of joy to his life and something memorable. A story that his family and you guys can talk about.”
The 12-time All-Star also thanked Oliver and Henry Thomas, Wade’s longtime agent who died recently, for being his angels after the game.
The Cavaliers traded Wade back to Miami earlier this month for a protected second-round pick.
With AP