Popular Sports Pages on CBS4.com
Aug 28, 2008 6:01 pm US/Eastern
Olympic Hero Dwyane Wade Honored By The Heat
Team U.S.A. Captures Olympic Gold Medal In Basketball
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The Miami Heat honored Olympic gold medalist Dwyane Wade at a public ceremony at AmericanAirlines Arena on Thursday.
The Heat unfurled a banner in his honor that will hang alongside the NBA championship banner Wade helped the franchise claim in 2006.
The gold medal ceremony started shortly after noon with Wade walking to the stage erected in the lower bowl of the arena while the Olympic theme music played in the background and the crowd went wild.
City of Miami Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez presented Dwyane Wade with an official City Proclamation which declared today "Dwyane Wade Day" in the City of Miami.
"You inspired future generations to excel and you have certainly energized a great city today. I want to take this opportunity to present to Wade in recognition from the City of Miami for his accomplishments, not only for representing our city but representing our country," said Sanchez.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Pepe Diaz, and Dennis Morales, who is Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez' Chief of Staff, also presented Wade with a proclamation from Miami-Dade County which proclaims August 28th, 2008 as Dwyane Wade Day. They also presented him with a "Key to the County".
When asked how he feels, Wade replied "Unbelievable." Wade went on to tell the crowd how proud he was to be playing for his country.
"Just the pride of playing for the USA really meant a lot to all 12 guys. Everyone put their egos aside, everyone put the team first. We did it together, that made it special," said Wade.
Miami Heat President and former coach Pat Riley also spoke in honor of Wade and the day he came to Miami.
"In June 2003, we drafted Dwyane in the 5th round, it's the best thing this franchise has ever done. In June of 2006, Dwyane and the Miami Heat brought Miami, for the first time a national championship," said Riley. "I think he showed in the Olympics, with all of the other great players on that team with him, in my humble opinion and I am not biased, I am knowledgeable, he is still the greatest player in the world."
The ceremony ended with Wade giving a heartfelt thank you to the crowd. "I want to thank everyone for coming out today and for your continued support of our franchise, the Miami Heat."
In a month, he and the Miami Heat will open training camp for a new NBA season, but until then, the All-Star guard intends to spend plenty of time resting and celebrating the title captured by the U.S. men's basketball team in Beijing, something that essentially amounts to his second world championship.
"To be part of the 2008 Olympic team, to play with the best players in the world and to be on this team, it's just amazing," Wade said when he arrived back in South Florida. "It really meant a lot to me, especially after the last two seasons that I've had injury-wise and that the Miami Heat have had. It can bring us back to life, not just me, but bring Miami back. I had a lot to prove going over there."
Wade was part of the team that won bronze at the Athens Games in 2004, and spent the last three years vowing to bring gold back from Beijing. But after spending the past two NBA seasons wracked with injuries, some wondered if Wade, who missed Miami's final 21 games last season because of knee problems, would even be a part of the team that the U.S. would send to China.
In the end, though, Wade proved his worth, and then some. He didn't start any of the eight games in Beijing, yet still finished the Olympics as the top American scorer, averaging 16 points per game on 67 percent shooting. And he might have been at his best in the gold-medal game, scoring 21 points in the first half to help the U.S. hold off Spain's best effort.
"It was scripted perfectly," Wade said. "For our team, for myself individually, to come out and have that kind of performance early in the first half, to keep us afloat, it really meant a lot to me personally after all the things that have been said and all the question marks about whether I was even going to make the team. And I became a big part of the team."
Now with Olympic gold, Wade wants to bring the same approach into the NBA season -- believing he has more to prove.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
