As Kobe Bryant comes down the final stretch of his retirement tour around the NBA, all eyes are already turning to what may be the next player to have a similar farewell tour. Could that by Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat? Not according to Wade (via the Sun-Sentinel).
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t sit back and say, ‘Oh, when I retire.’ I’m not that cocky to say, ‘I want a farewell tour when I retire.’ For me, that’s a little too cocky of a mindset to have, thinking I’m that important, that I should get a farewell tour.”
Wade also believes that the comeback tour has been good for Bryant because of the type of personality he’s shown during his career and how polarizing of a player he is.
“I think for Kobe, this is great,” he said. “I think for a lot of us, I think why it’s so great for Kobe is because for most of his career he’s not known to have friends, not known to be smiling.
“Even though the world is Lakers fans, most opponents boo him because of how great he was. So I think it’s great to see everything coming full circle. I think that’s why this farewell tour has been so great for Kobe.”
At 34 years old, Wade is not “old,” but he is three years younger than the retiring Bryant. Bryant may have played in significantly more NBA games after coming straight out of high school and playing on championship-caliber teams capable of a long postseason run more often than not for the bulk of his playing career, but Wade has played through a handful of injuries as well that have taken a toll on him at times. The three-time NBA champion may have a number of years left in him, with Pat Riley even suggesting Wade could play until he is 40 years old.
“Pat’s been saying that for a long time now,” Wade said with a smile. “No, I don’t [think that], but when I first came in the league I thought I was only going to play 10 years. I thought that was going to be enough for me. I told everyone around me I was going to retire when I was 31 and obviously that didn’t happen.”
When the time does come, will he make the decision to make his retirement public in advance, or will he step away for good without fanfare and pomp and circumstance at every stop on his own farewell tour? That decision will have to sit on ice, for now.