JORDAN-CHRISTOPHER PURVIS
Staff Writer
British mathematics tutor Geoffrey Parfitt once said, “People say that age is just a state of mind. I say it’s more about the state of your body.”
This year we are witnessing several of the best athletes to ever play the game of basketball step on the hardwood flooring one last time before they enter the next chapter of their lives. Dwyane Wade is the most notable name on the list of basketball athletes retiring at the end of the season.
Prior to the start of the 2018-2019 National Basketball Association (NBA) season, Wade announced that his 16th season will indeed be his last. Wade released this enormous decision to his fans and family in a ten minute long video titled, “One Last Dance.”
In the video, the 36-year-old veteran guard is shown describing his decision on retiring as well as his plans to focus more on his family and children.
“[Wade] means a lot to me,” said Allan Fegley, a sophomore sports management major. “I am not a great basketball player, but he has inspired me to become an overall great person by contributing to the community. He is one of the most likable players in the NBA because he shows so much care and respect to other people. Him retiring really devastated me. He can still provide for any team in the NBA, but it all really comes down to personal issues. He wants to be there for his new daughter, so it is very selfless of him to think more of his daughter than extending his career. To be fair, he has accomplished a lot of accolades and he will probably be a Hall of Famer in the future. Wade is arguably Miami’s greatest athlete and he will surely be missed.”
“I was really young when I became a Heat fan. It was around 2005, which is the year before the team won their first championship,” said Fegley, “Back in the Philippines, basketball is the [most watched sport]. Miami was the first NBA team that I laid my eyes on, and they really sparked my interest. I’ll be honest, I was not really a big fan back then. I was more of a casual fan. I really became a true fan when the “Big Three” [trio of professional basketball players — LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh] assembled back in 2011.
Fegley is involved in numerous things on and off campus. One of his biggest accomplishments in life thus far is creating “heat updates,” an Instagram account dedicated to updating Heat fans on recent transactions, injury reports and live game updates.
“I was really bored back in high school one day and I just decided to do it for fun,” said Fegley. “I would always boast about the team, and I thought to have an Instagram dedicated to news about them is something that I would be able to do every day. It was something fun to do, so it wasn’t hard for me to keep it. It challenged me to find relevant news about the team each day. I definitely did not expect it to get big, [then] Heat players [such as] Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic [started] following the account. Like I said, the account came out of boredom so the massive popularity came out of nowhere. I guess hard work does really pay off.”
The account currently has 105 thousand followers.
The Miami Heat are currently 10th in the Eastern Conference standings, with a small but possible chance of making this year’s playoffs. Through the course of this season, Wade has played in sixty-nine games, zero in which he did not start. He’s averaged 14.6 points, 4.1 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game. Dwyane Wade will play in his final regular season game tonight against the Brooklyn Nets at 8:00 p.m. at the Barclays Center.