Basketball: Try to watch this Dwyane Wade tribute and feel nothing

Tributes began to flow today as the great NBA player Dwyane Wade draws to a close.

Friday can no longer be used as a basketball player.

It's the reality, whether we like it or not. After 16 seasons in the NBA, after three championships, an almost annual place in the All-Star Game, a scorer's title, three franchises, four children, an Olympic gold medal and 161 teammates, the end may have arrived.

A video of Budweiser showed that Wade was receiving gifts from people – his mother, Jolinda Wade, and others, including Andrea Ghersi, Joaquin's sister "Guac" Oliver, a murdered teenager – returning to the way he was exchanging jerseys with other players all season. Gatorade aired a video starring John Legend, who sang a tribute to Wade's No. 3. Heat's president, Pat Riley, wrote a letter to Wade published in the game's program, claiming that Wade will be loved "forever".

Ghersi gave Wade his brother's jersey in the video, which was recorded last week. The jersey – No. 3, of course – came with scribbled words: "Please, do not forget my brother."

Today, Wade plays his last regular season game at home when the Miami Heat welcome the Philadelphia 76ers. Tomorrow it will be a game in Brooklyn to finish this season. Unless the Heat wins both and gets a lot of help in the final two days of the season, Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr.'s career will be over.

"I gave this game everything I had," Wade said. "And I enjoyed every moment."

The Heat still have a weak pulse in the playoffs. Of the remaining 64 possible scenarios involving Brooklyn, Orlando, Detroit, Charlotte and Miami over the next two days – the five teams are still competing for different places, the Nets and Magic being badured of qualifying for the playoffs – only three will send Wade in the playoffs.

Obviously, the chances are not good.

That is why today is generally considered a goodbye, even if no one will describe it officially. He does not want it to be the end, but he knows full well that it may be the 576th and last time he's playing at the AmericanAirlines Arena, all but one of those who wears it. Heat uniform.

"It was amazing, it was amazing," Wade said. "A lot of people in this arena watched me grow up, looked at me flawed, saw me make a lot of mistakes in life, saw me blossom and watched me do incredible things, great things I'm grateful for that. "

There is a series of pre-match events in the arena. Wade will address the crowd. Celebrities are expected. Wade's children will all be present. The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, where the February 14, 2018 mbadacre caused 17 deaths, will perform the national anthem. The tragedy deeply affected Wade. Oliver, one of the victims, was buried in a Wade jersey.

Wade "L3GACY" jerseys will be distributed to fans, some of whom have spent thousands of dollars on their seats. There will be commemorative Wade lanyards. There will be Wade clothes. Some arena staff asked if they could be excused for wearing Don Wade's regular game night jersey and sweater. Fans have come from as far as Australia and China. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sent greetings in a video.

And then, there will be a game.

The songs M-V-P will come. The ovations will be long. There will be tears. And the Heat will try to make a miracle in the playoffs.

"I do not want that to end," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. "I'm literally enjoying more fun this year and last year than every other year with Dwyane."

They are identical in many ways, Wade and Spoelstra. Both came to the heat like uncertain young men. Both have three championship rings now. Both are likely for the Basketball Hall of Fame. When Spoelstra was promoted to Head Coach in April 2008, he did not know if he would be able to handle the job – until he met Wade a few months later and found all of his confidence in him.

"That's what great players do," Spoelstra said. "You're talking about Hall of Fame players, they make other players better, and, well, super Hall of Fame superstars are also improving their coaching, and that's what Dwyane did."

Wade is loved in Miami, of course, for obvious reasons. Beloved in Chicago too, his hometown. Beloved in Milwaukee, where he drove Marquette to a Final Four in 2003.

And this farewell tour – the "One Last Dance" – is a league-wide victory round for enthusiastic NBA players.

"A legend," said Kyle Lowry of Toronto.

"Still unbelievable," said Luka Doncic of Dallas.

"My idol," said Bradley Beal, of Washington.

"A leader," said Wayne Ellington of Detroit.

"Winner winner," said Devin Booker of Phoenix.

Wade is no longer Wade 2008, or Big Wade of the 3 Epochs, or MVP Wade Finals NBA Finals. But he is still superb and with a talent for drama – like the drummer who dominated the Golden State a few weeks ago. He has been Heat's best player all season. It's hard to imagine how Miami will replace him next season because he will clearly be missed.

But that's also part of why this season is his last. Wade did not want to come out like a shell from his old self. He wanted to leave the scene with fans who demanded more, and that is precisely what happened.

"That's the good side of things, seeing him be able to go his own way, saying that he's done it," said his former teammate and close friend, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers. "No one forced him to go out or do anything like that, he can hang up when he's ready to do it and be at peace with it all."