Dwyane Wade defends the honor of Miami against Ersan Ilyasova

There’s only one way to respond when someone says some things. Someone else has to say a thing. Ersan Ilyasova said a thing, and Dwyane Wade was like “no.”

It seemed like the season was over for Dwyane Wade. The 76ers beat them handily in five games to move on in the 2018 postseason. The time for talking was over. What was to be said should have been spoken on the court in the form of basketball playing — or mouthwords if that’s what you’re into.

Well, Ersan Ilyasova had to go and pay a compliment to Boston, and Wade was not going to let that slide. Wade knows as well as anyone that Miami fans are easily upset, so he wanted to make sure they knew they still had the support of Dwyane Wade, local hero.

Half-empty may be a bit of an overstatement. You see, playoff games are much cooler than regular season games, so the stands probably were at least 3/4 full.

But still, the accusations of the Heat crowd being flaky are not new. Some might point to this footage of Miami fans leaving Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals before Ray Allen’s miracle shot as evidence:

But it predates that. It’s in Miami’s blood and less-than-ideal freeway system to be fashionably late. Or to leave early. Or to not be in attendance at all. Wade, for example, left Miami back in 2016, and that was way before the 2018 playoffs. He ended up back in the American Airlines Arena eventually, but most fans do too.

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Regardless, it was maybe uncalled for to refer to Ilyasova as “this man that most of you don’t even know.” Relative fame doesn’t have a ton to do with whether or not one person’s team beat the other one 4 games to 1. And indeed, if Ilyasova were so without regard, then Dwyane “Famous Man” Wade calling attention to his remarks would only be counterproductive.

But that’s life when you’re out of the playoffs. You have to fill your time somehow.