Dwyane Wade sank the winning shot for Miami Heat wearing the name of one of the Florida school shooting victims on his shoes.
The emotional star has dedicated the rest of his season to Joaquin Oliver – one of 17 people to lose their lives during the Douglas High School massacre.
Wade wore custom Nikes with the teenager’s name written on them against the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday night, just a day after they boy’s parents revealed their son was buried in a replica Miami Heat jersey carrying Wade’s name and number three.
He uploaded a stirring Instagram post after the shot which gave the Heat a 102-101 win, thanking both Oliver and his late agent Henry Thomas for being his ‘angels’.
Dwyane Wade (right) and Josh Richardson (left) of the Miami Heat celebrate a win against the Philadelphia 76ers on February 27, 2018 at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida
Wade (left) shot with less than six seconds remaining to give the Heat the win over Philadelphia
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade’s shoe bears the name of Parkland school shooting victim Joaquin Oliver, who was buried with a Dwyane Wade jersey
NBA Heat’s Dwyane Wade (right) became emotional discussing Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver (left) being buried his his Heat No. 3 jersey
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade hugs his sister Tragil Wade (left) and mother Jolinda Wade (right) after defeating the Philadelphia 76ers
Wade – arguably the Heat’s greatest ever player – returned to the franchise earlier this month after an 18-month hiatus with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wade scored 15 of Miami’s final 17 points, finished with a season-high 27.
His jump shot with 5.9 seconds remaining lifted the Heat to a 102-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday night.
And he punctuated the game winner with the ‘this is my house’ signal and yell to the crowd, as if there was any doubt that he somehow lost the deed to the building during his stints in Chicago and Cleveland.
Wade tweeted he was going to cry when informed of 17-year-old Joaquin being buried in one of his replica jerseys, before going on to dedicate the rest of the season to the teenager.
He wrote: ‘This is Joaquin Oliver. He was one of the 17 young lives that were lost tragically at Douglas High School in Parkland.
Wade – arguably the Heat’s greatest ever player – returned to the franchise earlier this month after an 18-month hiatus with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers
‘Joaquin was one of many that I heard was excited about my return to Miami and yesterday was buried in my jersey.
‘This is why we will not just shut up and dribble.’
The ‘shut up and dribble’ line was in reference to what Fox News host Laura Ingraham said LeBron James – Wade’s best friend and former Miami and Cleveland team-mate – should do after he made comments about President Donald Trump.
James has repeatedly said since the event that he will ‘not shut up and dribble’ and declared himself ‘more than an athlete’.
‘It’s way bigger than basketball,’ Wade said.
‘We are the voices for the people that don’t get to be heard.
‘Joaquin Oliver may you Rest In Peace and I dedicate my return and the rest of this Miami Heat season to you.’
The NBA star’s girlfriend Gabrielle Union tweeted her support for her partner.
After the winning basket dropped, she said: ‘I’m still shaking.
‘South Florida needed this. Man. I’m tearing up for so many reasons and none basketball related.
‘It’s bigger than basketball.’
Oliver, who was among 17 people killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School two weeks ago, was buried on February 17.
His family had moved from Venezuela to Florida when he was three-years-old.
In an interview on Univision, his parents said they buried their 17-year-old son in Wade’s Miami Heat jersey.
‘You really can’t put that in words,’ Wade told reporters after practice Monday.
Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem and Dwyane Wade, right, bow their heads in a moment of silence as a large banner in memory of the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting is unfurled before an NBA basketball game in Miami on Saturday
Wade had just learned on Sunday the 17-year-old student’s family buried their son in his jersey
He learned about the news of Oliver’s burial arrangements on Sunday.
‘You hurt for the family and if you’re able to get an opportunity to speak to them, you just try to hope that the time where he was alive, that you were able to bring some form of joy to his life and something memorable, a story that you guys can talk about.
‘I don’t even know the word for it. Like I retweeted on Twitter, I said, ”You’re going to make me cry.”
‘It’s emotional even thinking about that, that his parents felt that burying him in my jersey is something that he wanted.
‘I take a lot of pride in what I’ve done in this state and what I’ve meant for the youth, so I appreciate that,’ he said while talking to reporters Monday.
Wade had just returned to Miami after starting the season with his former Heat teammate Lebron James in Cleveland.
He was just six days into his return to the Heat when the shooting tore apart the Parkland community.
Joaquin Oliver’s memorial at the school where 14 children and three staffers were brutally gunned down on February 14
Wade has pledged to keep the students’ in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s fight to create stricter gun laws alive through his own public platform
Wade pledged on Saturday to keep the discourse on stricter gun laws in the public discourse, when he spoke to a crowd before Heat’s game as both teams held a Stoneman Douglas banner.
Wade said one of the goals is to ‘make sure that [the students’] voices are heard around gun safety.’