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A sophomore slump was never on the table for Dwyane Wade. Flash came back for year two with the high-wire act still intact, only now there was a knockdown mid-range jumper and the defensive instincts to match. Once that season played out, his first SLAM cover wasn't really a debate.
He'd entered the League with the '03 draft class, scrapping for attention against the Chosen One, an unknown, a college champ and a long line of proven collegiate names — and mostly losing that fight. Scouts knocked him as undersized for a two-guard, then too big to run the point. Funny thing: the draft combine still has no drill that measures heart. Wade would've lapped the field in that category.
Shaquille O'Neal arriving didn't shrink him either. Wade ran the Heat like a fire keeper of old, and what he saw in those flames was the game — not just his own, but everything wrapped around it. Photo shoots, public appearances, media requirements, official League events, and then the actual game at the end of all that. Playing that side of it is a learned skill. The on-court part? He was top ten in the NBA in scoring and assists during that second campaign.
Then SLAM 87 dropped, and not long after, he led the Heat to a championship. That explosion in the '06 Finals grew out of the embers of the season before. Fall down seven times, get up eight. His name started turning up beside words like clutch, unstoppable and Hall of Famer.
SLAM 87 was the flashpoint.
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