‘Banana Boat’ crew reunites at Wade’s final game

5:02 pm | April 10, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:

8:47 PM ET

Tim BontempsESPN

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Dwyane Wade‘s final NBA game also marked something else: a reunion of the Banana Boat Crew.

Moments before Wednesday night’s game at Barclays Center between Wade’s Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets tipped off, LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony exited the arena’s underground elevator inside a private SUV, and walked into the bowl of the arena just as the night’s rendition of the national anthem was being completed.

That meant all three of them were able to get to their seats in the corner of the court across from Miami’s bench in time for a tribute video honoring Wade before pregame introductions to be played.

Wade, who was introduced first to a standing ovation by the crowd, then went over and hugged each of his friends before taking the court in the starting lineup.

After scoring 30 points in the final home game of his career Tuesday night in a win over the Philadelphia 76ers, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra did his best to downplay expectations for an encore performance from Wade before Wednesday night’s game.

“Yeah, in a normal circumstance this would 1,000 percent be considered load management and protection,” Spoelstra said. “There’s no guarantees that this will be like last night. He let it all out there, including the postgame celebration. It was an incredible night. It was beautiful, and just everything probably played out as well as you possibly could imagine it, dream of it, in a scenario like that.

“That just doesn’t happen for most pro athletes. I’m very grateful like everyone else in Miami and the organization to have been part of a night like that.”

Wade fell trying to do his famous leap onto the scorer’s table during his postgame celebration Tuesday night, and tweeted Wednesday afternoon about getting treatment on his knee ahead of the final game of his NBA career.

And while he did get into the lane for a layup early in Wednesday’s game, Wade did look a step slower than he did in Tuesday’s vintage performance — something to be expected from a 37-year-old playing in the second half of a back-to-back set.

Still that didn’t much matter to the Wade fans in attendance here, who were happy to cheer for him every time he made a play as the game played out.

In addition to James, Wade and Anthony, Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker was expected to attend Wednesday’s game.