The Miami Heat are grinding through a turbulent 2025-26 campaign, sitting just above .500 at 29-27 after a much-needed road win over the New Orleans Pelicans. It’s been a season of inconsistency, and with the team struggling to find its footing in the Eastern Conference playoff race, it’s no surprise that Heat fans are looking back-way back-to the franchise’s first NBA title in 2006.
That championship run, led by a 24-year-old Dwyane Wade, remains one of the most iconic in modern NBA history. Wade’s Finals performance against the Dallas Mavericks wasn’t just memorable-it was historic.
He averaged 34.7 points per game across the six-game series, including four straight outings with 36 or more points. That kind of dominance on the biggest stage is rare, and two decades later, Wade is reminding folks just how special it was.
“I averaged 35 in the Finals!!! Let me say that again.
I averaged 35 in the Finals! I averaged 40 in four games but I averaged 35 in the Finals… you got some Dallas fans out there like, ‘Yeah, but you averaged 20 free throws!’
Yeah, I got to the line too… the greats get to the line,” Wade said recently via his show on X (formerly Twitter).
He’s not wrong. The ability to draw contact and get to the free-throw line has always separated good scorers from great ones.
It’s a skill-one that requires timing, savvy, and a deep understanding of how to manipulate defenders. Wade mastered it.
And if you look around the league today, the blueprint hasn’t changed. MVP-caliber players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic are among the league leaders in free throw attempts, and they hear the same complaints from fans that Wade once did.
It comes with the territory when you live at the line and live in the paint.
That 2006 title was just the beginning for Wade, who went on to win two more championships in Miami after the arrival of LeBron James and Chris Bosh in 2010. The Big Three era brought the Heat back to the top of the NBA mountain, cementing Wade’s legacy as one of the greatest shooting guards the game has ever seen.
Since then, the franchise has had its moments-most notably Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023-but the last couple of seasons have seen the Heat drift further from contention. With an aging core and a roster in flux, there’s growing chatter among fans and analysts about whether it’s time for a reset in South Beach.
For now, though, Miami fans are left reminiscing-remembering the days when Wade was slicing through defenses, drawing contact, and putting the team on his back. His Finals performance in 2006 didn’t just win a championship; it set the tone for a culture of toughness, grit, and winning that still defines the franchise today.
And if you ask Wade, he’s not here for the revisionist history. He earned every point, every free throw, and every bit of that Larry O’Brien trophy.