In October, Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade had a statue unveiled for him in front of the team’s home arena.
As part of the ceremony, he was given a chance to speak. During his speech, he made some comments that caught the attention of many, as he said, “A house divided against itself will not stand.”
The writing was on the wall.
Dwyane knew. Dwyane knows Jimmy. He knew what was happening behind the scenes. pic.twitter.com/sFdeHBYiJR
— Noticing 👀 (@DontHateTheH3at) January 3, 2025
Recently, he was asked by the Miami Herald about the breakup between the Heat and star forward Jimmy Butler that took place this season. The newspaper asked him where he feels the blame lies and how tough it was to watch the situation unfold.
He offered a detailed response, which ended with him explaining that his comments from the statue ceremony were indeed relevant to the situation.
“Well, the one thing I’ve realized is don’t go around planting blame on somebody when you really don’t know what’s going on,” Wade said. “I wasn’t in the room where it happened, so I don’t know and I’m not into pointing fingers necessarily. … What I don’t like more than anything is just the stain it puts on our franchise. We have one of the greatest franchises for the last 20, 30 years that’s in professional sports. We don’t want the conversation to be about that, we want it to be about the success that we’ve had and how we’ve created that success. So it was a very unfortunate time.”
He continued.
“You understand that relationships come to an end,” Wade said. “A six-year relationship is a long time for a lot of people. So it’s OK that their relationship needed to come to an end. It’s just sometimes it doesn’t always have to be so nasty or ugly.”
Wade then brought up his comments from the statue ceremony.
“I just wanted to make sure that I voiced my opinion,” Wade said. “I knew there was smoke. I think I was very clear with my message when I had the time to speak during my statue moment. That was a moment that was about me and I took the moment to talk to the team, and tell them who Pat Riley is and who this organization is. And I knew if everything did not get on the right line, some [stuff] was going to go down. I felt that at that time and that’s why I said that message. Everybody wasn’t in attendance, but the message went out loud. I had a feeling because I knew enough and obviously I have relationships. Ultimately, the relationship needed to end, which it did. It’s just sometimes there has to be a better way that we can handle things, whether it’s the player or our front office. We just got to do a better job because this is a part of our history.”
Butler and the Heat had an ugly season together, with the veteran ultimately asking for a trade and being suspended multiple times before he eventually got his wish.
Miami had some truly special seasons with Butler in the fold, as he helped the team reach the NBA Finals twice and the Eastern Conference Finals three times. But the partnership evidently ran its course, with the two sides reaching untenable territory this season.
Now, Butler is with the Golden State Warriors, who have launched themselves into the championship picture in the eyes of some. The Warriors just clinched a playoff bid after winning in the play-in, and they’ll now take on the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
The Heat, on the other hand, are facing an uphill climb to get to the playoffs themselves. They’re going to need to win two play-in games in order to reach a playoff series, with their first play-in test coming against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.
While Butler and the Heat were never able to win a championship together, they still had a memorable partnership all the way until the wheels fell off. Hopefully, once a certain amount of time passes, folks will be able to reflect on the era without feeling any negative emotions about how it ended.
