With Dwyane Wade gone, the Heat culture is tested

The last time I was forced to go through the five stages of acceptance, I was eating huevos rancheros. It was 2014, and I had never had it before. We were on a road trip and stopped at a Mexican joint somewhere in Oregon or Washington or whatever for breakfast. When in Rome.

I was excited. Breakfast is my favorite meal and Mexican is my favorite cuisine. Why hadn’t I had this before? 23 years seemed too long. This was, it goes without saying, a big freaking deal.

Not two scoops of refried beans into my meal and I got a text message alert. LeBron James was leaving the Miami Heat. I devoured not my tortillas, but the Sports Illustrated letter.

(Denial) How could LeBron leave? This can’t be real. Oh, man, it’s real. (Anger) We had a good thing going. What’s wrong with him? What gives? (Bargaining) I mean, we didn’t really deserve him in the first place. (Depression) This sucks. Just like that, everything–the rings, the parades, the dedicated ESPN news cycle–is all gone. (Acceptance) Well, it was a great four years.

In many ways, the departure of Dwyane Wade is even more shocking than LeBron’s. Not because it comes as close to altering the competitive landscape of the NBA, but because Wade was the Heat.

Wait. Wade is the Heat.

Through the best and worst times, there was Wade. Always steady. A man so secure in his role as the face of the franchise that he willingly and famously handed the team over to LeBron indefinitely. Snow would arrive in Miami before Wade left. But now, it’s not just me and other Heat fans matriculating through the five steps of acceptance over a plate of runny eggs and corn tortillas.

Pat Riley, clearly, didn’t actually think Wade would leave. Wade himself thought he would retire with the Heat, and is in just as much shock as his fans.

“This is never goodbye to South Florida,” Wade said. “The words, ‘Heat Lifer,’ I’m a Heat for life. I’ll always be a Heat.”

“Heat Lifer,” that phrase you hear so much, was coined by Wade, and the Heat Culture is as much a result of Wade’s career as it is Riley’s rule.

Three short years after taking the Heat to the playoffs in his rookie season, in 2006 Wade put up one of the greatest performances in NBA Finals history. Down 0-2 to the Mavericks, he lifted the Heat–Shaquille O’Neal included–to its first championship. Wade averaged 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game and shot nearly 100 free throws.

Wade was unfazed by playing through his prime for an underachieving team in the years that followed. Unfazed by losing the national spotlight to the likes of LeBron and Dwight Howard. Unfazed when his team slumped into the lottery for the first time since he was drafted and selected Michael Beasley with the second pick. He still believed so much in what the Heat were doing, even then, that he was able to help convince LeBron and Chris Bosh to join him in Miami. He was up to the challenge, as we saw time and time again, during the Finals in 2011 when LeBron and Bosh were clearly not.

Despite his knee telling him no, Wade pushed through the 2012 and 2013 Finals and drowned out his knee in champagne. He embodied the Heat Culture even when his body failed him. He bestowed the values upon his teammates, and pushed himself to the brink. Even after LeBron left, Wade forced the window open by getting in his best shape since 2011. The bag of tricks. Father Prime. The sudden and surprising barrage of three’s he rained on Charlotte to win Games 6 and 7 and defy Purple Shirt guy and lift his team out of the first round. It was his final act.

All of that adds up to quite a resume but it’s only a snapshot of what Wade accomplished in Miami. Those accomplishments will live in AmericanAirlines Arena but, for the Heat, they hope that Wade’s influence doesn’t become history quite yet. With LeBron parading in Cleveland, Wade in Chicago and Bosh’s future uncertain, that culture the Heat worked so hard to establish is at risk for the first time in a long while.

It’s not threatened just because the Big Three is dispersed. After trading mainstays Mario Chalmers and Chris Andersen at the beginning of last season, and locker room favorites Mike Miller and Joel Anthony in the years before that, the holders of the Heat Way have dwindled in numbers. Miami was able to get away with it because Wade was always there.

They leaned and counted on Wade to establish and teach the Culture off the court just as they leaned and counted on Wade on the court. No one–not Riley, Micky Arison, or even Wade himself–thought that he, the beacon, wouldn’t be there to light the way.

The Heat Culture now is hanging by a thread. That thread, Udonis Haslem, recently re-signed, has maybe two more years in the league.

The Heat hope that one year with Wade was enough for Josh Richardson and Justise Winslow, who said he learned a lot from his season with Wade and was “really thankful” for the experience.

"“It’s just one of those things where it’s not so much about me having to step up or me taking on a bigger role or losing Dwyane, it’s just the fact that not too often you get to have one of the greatest of all-time on your team.”"

While Winslow and Richardson are worthy disciples of the Culture, the face of the franchise is Hassan Whiteside, recently re-signed to a max deal. Such a stark contrast is the fearless leadership and icy poise of Wade to the man who is just as concerned with becoming a star on Snapchat as one on the court.

If you believe the reports, Wade wanted more credit for assembling the Big Three and for the sacrifices he had made for the Heat over the years. Riley and Wade, for so long, was a happy marriage. Where Riley’s influence ended and Wade’s began you couldn’t tell. It’ll be tough to accept how it ended for everyone involved.

And now, for the first time since 2003, since before any of the rings or banners or confetti or parades and before Miami became a basketball town, the Heat Culture will be truly tested. As much as Wade has been the Heat, the Heat must now accept the harsh reality of breaking away.

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