From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Best Professional Athlete

October 18 2006

Dwyane Wade
Miami Heat, Miamiheat.com

How fitting was it that Wade was the last Miami Heat player to touch the ball in the team's nail-biting Game Six championship win over the Dallas Mavericks? After pulling down his final rebound of the season, the third-year guard ecstatically launched the ball toward the rafters of the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the hope of leading his team to its first title in franchise history finally becoming a reality. It's not that the series MVP didn't make it exciting, remaining scoreless until the last two minutes of the first quarter and then finishing the half with 19 points. And really, nobody was going to rescind his title as Heir Jordan when he flubbed two huge free throws with less than 10 seconds left in the game and the Heat up by only three. No, the Heat's championship season rests squarely on the shoulders of Wade. By sheer force of will, he pulled his teammates to the pinnacle, vaulting over the Chicago Bulls, the New Jersey Nets, the Detroit Pistons and finally the Mavs, against whom the Heat came back after losing the first two games in the series, and looked spectacular in the process.