Gary Payton detailed the moment he helped Dwyane Wade become Miami's leader: "Only person we had to overtake was Shaq"

Dwyane Wade is considered by many as one of the greatest shooting guards of all time. Equipped with explosiveness and exquisite shotmaking, Wade was one of the pillars in two successful eras of the Miami Heat.

But before he won his first chip, many fans and players didn’t fully trust him to lead Miami to the league’s mountaintop.

Despite already establishing himself as a reliable scorer for the Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade was still young and largely unproven, especially while playing alongside an ageing yet still dominant Shaquille O’Neal.

Doubts grew stronger after the Heat fell short of dethroning the defending champion Detroit Pistons in seven games in the 2005 Eastern Conference finals.

Wade averaged 25.8 points per game in the series but struggled in Game 7 after suffering an injury in Game 5. While the performance was impressive, questions remained about whether he could truly lead Miami to a championship.

It took one of the most respected players in NBA history, Gary Payton, to make at least the veteran players on the team realize that the Heat were truly Wade’s team. Payton recalled watching D-Wade and the Heat crumble in seven games against the Pistons in 2005 and seeing a familiar player with the same killer mentality within the then-23-year-old.

“This lil kid has a lil spunk to him, but he just doesn’t have the people to guide him the right way. When we got there, I watched him in practice and how he worked, he reminded me of Kobe a lot,” he said.

What Payton saw in Wade compelled him to speak with the team’s veteran leaders and urge them to rally behind the young star fully.

“I was like, ‘We have to understand that this is him. This is his basketball team,” added Payton, “I had a meeting with Posey, I had a meeting with Antoine. I said, ‘Y’all know this kid can go, he’s the one.’ They agreed with it. Only person we had to overtake was Shaq, they left that up to me, but he (eventually) bit.”

Wade took over in 2006

The Heat finished the 2006 season as the East’s top seed with a 52–30 record. While that total was seven wins fewer than the previous year, this Miami squad was noticeably more formidable, more focused and battle-tested.

With veterans Shaquille O’Neal, Gary Payton, Antoine Walker and James Posey entirely buying into their roles behind emerging superstar, the Heat looked to be the favorites to win a title.

Wade had fully embraced being a leader and it was most evident during Game 4 in the Heat’s first-round series against the Chicago Bulls. Following a turnover from a botched pass from Wade to Payton, the two got into a heated argument on the sidelines. While fans may see that moment as a result of chemistry issues, for Payton, it was the moment when Wade truly became Miami’s captain.

“That was one of the moments that Dwyane, to me, became a leader,” said Payton.

With a unified and hungry roster, the Heat eliminated the Bulls in six games before cruising past the New Jersey Nets in the second round. That set up a long-awaited rematch with the Detroit Pistons and this time Miami got its revenge, dispatching the defending Eastern Conference champions in six games.

The defining moment came in the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. After falling behind 0-2, Wade produced one of the greatest Finals performances in league history, averaging an astonishing 39.3 points over the next four games to carry the Heat to their first championship.

While the 2006 Finals are often cited as the ultimate proof of Wade’s greatness, they also represented the culmination of a veteran-led team fully committing to him — and trusting him to lead them to the top.

A defining moment for Wade and the Heat

Wade may have still produced his scoring outburst during the 2006 Playoffs even without the team fully believing in him, but it’s fair to argue that the Heat would not have rallied through adversity, especially after falling behind 0-2 in the Finals, without veterans like Payton, Shaql and the rest of the locker room fully aligning behind him.

While NBA history is filled with young players emerging as their team’s top option, few have enjoyed the immediate success Wade achieved in Miami. That championship run laid the foundation for him to become one of, if not the most, beloved players in franchise history.

Winning a title often hinges on countless variables, but in the Heat’s case in 2006, the formula was simple: veterans embracing their roles and placing complete trust in a young superstar to lead them to the promised land.

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Feb 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Gary Payton detailed the moment he helped Dwyane Wade become Miami’s leader: “Only person we had to overtake was Shaq”

Tags: