Dwyane's dreamy last dance

His final All-Star appearance completed, Wade now focused on playoff push

Dwyane Wade is adamant that the end of this season will be the right time for him to bid farewell to the game of basketball.

But the game spent last weekend disagreeing with him.

Wade's final All-Star appearance as a player is now complete, a four-day whirlwind that had testimonials, celebrations, moments with his family, countless photos and chats with some of basketball's royalty.

And one more lob to LeBron James for good measure.

Wade scored seven points in his final NBA All-Star Game, helping Team LeBron notch a 178-164 victory over Team Giannis in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"If you could wake up and say, 'This is how I would like my perfect day to go, this is how I would like my perfect All-Star weekend to go,' then this was it for me," Wade said.

"This was exactly what I envisioned, what I wanted when I knew I had this opportunity. And it was even more than I thought it could be."

The score and the stats from the weekend will be forgotten, but the moments won't be - at least not anytime soon. And with 26 games left in Wade's season with the Miami Heat, the NBA is not ready to say goodbye.

"He's been one of the guys who's been a leader in our league, an ambassador worldwide as well as a champion," said Los Angeles Lakers president Magic Johnson, one of many who lauded Wade at a testimonial dinner to kick off All-Star weekend.

"D-Wade embraced being the face of the league for a long time. I think the league has done well by him this season, with every arena honoring him, but we're going to miss him."

A few hours after landing in Charlotte, Wade thought he was headed to a dinner with some family and close friends.

When he arrived with his wife Gabrielle Union and their new daughter Kaavia, he quickly realized he'd been misled by his inner circle - and dinner for a few was becoming dinner for a few hundred instead.

It turned out to be a five-hour party, replete with a red carpet arrival, him seated on a throne and simultaneously drinking from two glasses of red wine at one point, laughs, hugs, tears and capped by karaoke - one of his off-court obsessions.

Speakers included Caron Butler, Donovan Mitchell, Isiah Thomas, Tim Hardaway, his parents Jolinda Wade and Dwyane Wade Sr, Charles Barkley, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Heat president Pat Riley.

They all told different stories with the same theme: Wade has meant so much, to so many, for so long.

"No one - and I mean no one - has done the things at a professional level out of Chicago on a basketball stage better than Dwyane Wade," said Thomas, who like Wade is a proud son of the Windy City.

Riley spoke longer than anyone, nearly 20 minutes, and when he got done he had the sounds of Donna Summer's Last Dance blare through the room where revelers dined on filet mignon and sea bass.

Wade and Riley hugged, and Riley kissed the most important draftee of his career on the cheek.

"He's the greatest," Riley said.

Wade even savored the regular All-Star machinations - interviews, practice, appearances. Fans screamed for him and clamored for him to sign anything and everything when he walked into media day on Saturday, and he couldn't go anywhere without someone asking for a photo or autograph.

"To be here, for me to be able to choose him to be part of Team LeBron, for him to be here this weekend, it's a bittersweet moment, obviously," said James, Wade's championship-winning teammate in Miami and later a teammate again in Cleveland.

"The bitter part is that this is his last time being in All-Star weekend and knowing that his journey is coming to an end as far as being a player. But the sweet moment is that we've got so much more life to live together, and we will continue that."

The biggest thrill Wade got of his celebration weekend, however, had nothing to do with his own play.

His son, Zaire Wade, was a star on the All-Star stage.

From throwing lobs with his dad and James at practice on Saturday, getting an on-court tutorial from reigning NBA MVP James Harden, posing for photos himself, even being on the court for warmups at the All-Star Game and slapping high-fives with Blake Griffin among others, the kid soaked up everything he could all weekend.

That was precisely what his father wanted.

"Having Zaire by my side every step of this road is something that I really wanted to do," Wade said. "But I couldn't imagine it'd be this cool. He was trending worldwide. That's like, insane."

Wade's last regular season with the Heat ends on April 10. After that, there's hope for a playoff run. And then he's done, but for one final game - a 1-on-1 matchup against Zaire, the high-school junior who has multiple NCAA Division 1 offers already and will likely draw more this summer before he commits to a college this fall.

Zaire has never beaten his dad.

"He can't beat me now," Zaire Wade said.

Time will tell on that.

But first, there's the season to finish. Wade will take a couple of days off before practice resumes on Wednesday, ready for some sun and golf. When the playoff push resumes on Thursday in Philadelphia - and Miami has some work to do in the Eastern Conference race - Wade will be ready.

"My mind will be right," he said.

Whatever happens, though, the legacy is clearly secure.

"There will never be another D-Wade," Johnson said. "And that stretches further than Miami. That goes for all over the world."

Associated Press