Dwyane Wade immediately thought back to the improbable three-pointer Kobe Bryant hit over him ten years ago after nailing his own miracle game-winner Wednesday night.
Wade banked in a straight-away three to give the Miami Heat a stunning 126-125 victory against the visiting Golden State Warriors.
The 37-year-old finished with 25 points and hit two threes in the final 16 seconds.
Per the AP:
“Thank you for showing me the way, Mamba Mentality,” Wade said in the on-court interview, referring to Bryant by one of his nicknames.
Not long afterward, Bryant responded on Twitter: “My man,” he wrote to Wade, adding the hashtag “last dance” — a nod to the “One Last Dance” theme Wade has used throughout this, his 16th and final season in the NBA before retirement.
A loss would have set them back a bit in the standings, and who-knows-how-much more emotionally — since had the Warriors won, it would have been a win where Miami blew a 24-point lead. Instead, Wade engineered a miracle in Miami — exactly one year to the day after he hit a game-winner to beat Philadelphia at home.
“He deserved to win this game,” Golden State’s Kevin Durant said.
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