Wade's Finals Performance

A lot has been made recently on ESPN.com regarding statistician and columnist John Hollinger's rankings of the Greatest Finals Performances by an individual player. The cause for the uproar: Hollinger ranking our very own Dwyane Wade's 2006 Finals performance as the best all time.

I have to say, that was a bold statement by Mr. Hollinger. Wade is my favorite player in the NBA right now, but to put him above Jordan is a stretch. The thing is, Hollinger backs it up with some serious stats and arguments. Wade's PER (a stat Hollinger uses to determine efficiency, basically adds up positive plays and subtracts negative ones) was 6% higher than the next best performance of any player in NBA Finals history. You might remember Wade led the league in PER in 2005, but didn't receive any credit for it in the MVP race. Or was it 2006? Either way, it's a widely accepted stat that people have to respect at this point.

What helped Wade's performance was his constant trips to the free throw line and a well-rounded game the included steals, rebounds and assists to go with the nearly 35 points a game. The former is the reason for contention amongst so many fans. Any Heat fans knows that the 2006 Finals is notorious for non-Miami fans because everyone is convinced that the refs were in our favor. This despite the face the stats show that Dirk got more foul shots than any other player in playoff history that year, and the refs have historically been against us. Notice how we lost Games 2 and 5 in the ECF to Detroit, coincidentally reffed by Dick (Knick) Bavetta, who has a long and negative history with the Miami Heat.

It's frustrating to see nobody give credit to Wade, even 2 years after the fact. Hacks like Bill Simmons keep bringing up the foul shots like it was some conspiracy. Yeah, some of the fouls were ticky-tack. But the foul shots would never have been taken if Dallas didn't play Hack-a-Shaq halfway through every quarter. That was their own damn fault. Shooting 37% in the series didn't help either; it was clear that Miami outplayed them from Games 3-6, foul shooting aside.

I also hate the argument that Shaq was the sole reason we won and that Wade without Shaq is just Penny. These are the same people who call Shaq a fat and slow liability on the court. Pick one, guys. Either Shaq was an asset or a detriment to the team, he can't be both. The truth is that Shaq was a non-factor offensively and defensively in that series. Mourning was the guy who made all the plays. The only thing Shaq did was force Dallas to foul him and rack up the fouls shots. People will never seem to understand, and I just don't get what the problem is.

Even without the foul shots, Wade was clutch in Games 3, 5 and 6. He made some of the toughest shots in Finals history when it mattered most. And yes, maybe he took a lot of free throws, but he didn't choke and miss them either. He made those shots, so he deserves far more respect from the general public than what he gets now. I really wish people would see just how many of his foul shots were intentional fouls at the end of games (I've done the stats, it is impressive), just how many of his foul shots were due to Hack-a-Shaq, and I really wish people would see the following three plays of Game 6:

1) Udonis Haslem being called for traveling in the closing seconds of the game while trying to wrestle a rebound away. I've never seen anything that ridiculous called. He never fully got possession of the ball and the second he did, the refs handed the ball to Dallas.
2) James Posey's "double dribble", again in the final 2 minutes. How can you double dribble when you are hustling to grab a loose ball from going out of bounds. That is yet another iffy call that I have never seen called in that situation in any game in the NBA. Once again, Dallas ball.
3) And finally, up 3 with 10 seconds left, Gary Payton got beat by Jason Terry and purposefully yanked on his jersey as he turned a screen, BEFORE Terry could take a potentially game-tying shot. Rather than give us the foul, forcing Dallas to take foul shots and not allowing them a 3-point shot, the refs held their whistle and allowed the play to continue. Luckily the shot missed and the rest was history.

I challenge anyone to watch those three plays and tell me the refs were so in love with the Miami Heat that they planned on giving them the series. Go ahead. The great part is that it doesn't matter. No matter what anybody says, the Heat won a title. They were champs. We had the parade. I bought the DVD set. Try as they may, nobody can ever take that away from that 2006 team or its fans.