During the Miami Heat unveiling a statue for Dwyane Wade, he mentioned an interesting point in his speech Sunday afternoon that spoke about the player that will continue to carry the culture to the future. While people will discuss Wade’s statue and its polarizing reviews, he would speak about the footprints left by former stars and the ones to come in the horizon.
In the aforementioned speech, Wade would talk about how the statue also resonates about the Heat’s “legacy” left by him and others such as Udonis Haslem and Alonzo Mourning. The three-time champion and Hall of Famer would specifically mention how Bam Adebayo is the one to carry that legacy in the present and future as he said to ClutchPoints how the icons have been speaking to the 27-year old about the topic.
“We speak a lot, we’ve always have, UD, myself, the organization have spoke to Bam [Adebayo] at this level for a long time,” Wade said. “And it’s not pressure, it’s just opportunity. I mentioned Alonzo Mourning, I mentioned Udonis Haslem. I mentioned myself, and then I mentioned Bam. Listen to mention Bam, with those likes, that’s respect, because we see himn as someone who’s going to continue to take on everything that we learned here and everything that we passed on for this organization to be successful.”
Heat’s Bam Adebayo is a “cornerstone” for the team per Dwyane Wade
Adebayo has also been focused on by Heat president Pat Riley in building his legacy with the team as the words from Wade and further spoke from Haslem and Mourning are far from the only times the center has been talked about. The Heat big-man has also been a captain for the past two seasons since Haslem’s retirement as per Wade, players like Adebayo are “cornerstones” to a franchise and even spoke to the rest of the team.
“And you don’t have those players, they don’t come around often,” Wade said. “You have a lot of talented players come around, you have people that do great things. You don’t have cornerstone individuals that can take your culture and keep it going. And so I just spoke on that, and I’ve spoken to him. I spoke to the team too, tou heard me all right. A house divided will not stand…and so it’s important for me to set that example, to be that example, but not to be the only one. And so we’re thankful for Zo [Mourning], because he said it, UD [Haslem] and I followed. And Bam has to be thankful for us because we set it, and now he’s following it, and so hopefully it keeps going.”
Some people might be shocked that Jimmy Butler wasn’t mentioned, but it is likely Adebayo fits the criteria more due to him being drafted by Miami and being developed solely by the franchise. At any rate, Adebayo, Butler, and the Heat are 1-1 as their next game is Monday night against the Detroit Pistons.