{"id":593527,"date":"2026-02-10T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/593527\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T00:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:01:14","slug":"dont-have-to-give-a-long-text-dwyane-wade-recalls-pat-rileys-pre-game-texts-to-him-during-the-2006-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/593527\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDon\u2019t Have to Give a Long Text\u201d: Dwyane Wade Recalls Pat Riley\u2019s Pre-Game Texts to Him During the 2006 NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn\u2019t a secret that LeBron James is the greatest player from the 2003 NBA Draft. However, he is far from the only elite-level talent from the historic draft class. One of the best players was the fifth pick, Dwyane Wade. The Miami Heat legend made a name for himself long before James came to South Beach. His coming-out party came in the 2006 NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

Aside from Darko Milicic, Dwyane Wade<\/a> was the first of the top five picks of the 2003 NBA Draft to reach the Finals. In 2006, Wade led the Heat<\/a> to the franchise\u2019s first Finals appearance at just 24 years old. The roster also consisted of legendary big man Shaquille O\u2019Neal, yet everyone knew it was Wade\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

One of the first people to stamp Wade as the team\u2019s best player was Heat head coach Pat Riley. However, Riley<\/a> didn\u2019t stop there. His belief in Wade\u2019s talent was far greater than just the best player on the team\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say that at that time in those moments, every player is the greatest player in the world,\u201d Riley said<\/a> in a conversation with Wade. \u201cOver a period of two months, the playoffs, six weeks, whatever it was. That\u2019s where you had landed at that time. Your third year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley wasn\u2019t over exaggerating, Wade was exceptional in his third season. He was an MVP candidate, averaging 27.2 points, 6.7 assists, and 5.7 rebounds. In the regular season, Wade was dominant, but the Finals were a different beast.<\/p>\n

The Heat originally began the series with the backs against the wall, down 0-2 to the Dallas Mavericks. Wade hit another gear, reaching averages of 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game. His output was so emphatic that it is still among the greatest postseason performances of all time.<\/p>\n

Of course, a stage like the NBA Finals was foreign to Wade at such an age. Riley knew of the pressure this could create for a young star and had an interesting way of igniting his inner fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to get those text messages from you before games, and it\u2019ll start with BIW. It set me right, though,\u201d Wade revealed.<\/p>\n

BIW stood for best in the world. Even if Wade didn\u2019t fully believe the sentiment, those words began to stick to his confidence. Riley didn\u2019t include many words, but his rationale was quite effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to give a long text to a player,\u201d Riley said. \u201cMost of the time, a player looks at a long text, they just won\u2019t even read it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Wade to eventually play like he was the best player in the world.<\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s actions had a direct correlation with the Heat\u2019s 2006 NBA championship. Eventually, Miami would add two more in 2012 and 2013. Wade\u2019s role shifted a bit during those Finals runs, but the impact of Riley\u2019s text messages lingered even then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It isn\u2019t a secret that LeBron James is the greatest player from the 2003 NBA Draft. However, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,572,189,6,11,2483],"class_list":{"0":"post-593527","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dwyane-wade","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-pat-riley"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116043401342141070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}