Emergency Post: Dean Wade takes down Boston

A brief ode to swimming pools and Cleveland’s never-less-underrated hero

Tonight was “Kelce Brothers Bobblehead Night” at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, and damned if Dean Wade was going to miss his best chance to meet Taylor Swift’s boyfriend. 

That’s almost certainly an inaccurate portrayal of the 27-year old undrafted forward’s motivations.

Wade is from Kansas, and a huge Chiefs fan, and if we’re being honest, he probably didn’t think much about Travis Kelce while he was out scoring Boston 20-17 in the fourth quarter, by himself. In fact, Wade didn’t look like he was thinking about much at all while he drilled all five of his fourth-quarter three point attempts and put back a Darius Garland miss–of which there were far too many–to take the lead for the final time, claiming a 105-104 victory for Donovan Mitchell-less Cleveland over East-leading Boston. The Cavs came back from 22 down in the final stanza.  

Heading into the fourth quarter, Georges Niang reportedly told Wade to “empty the clip.” And Wade, the soft spoken, shrug prone, just-a-little-bit-of-hair-product fourth-year player, emptied the clip indeed, rising again and again from beyond the arc, perfectly balanced, ball on the kind of flat trajectory that only works for shooters so hot they’re anxious to just get the thing through the hoop already.  

After the game, Wade told sideline reporter and source of Wilhelm family division Serena Winters, “It's kind of like, your mind's quiet, and the rim looks huge. That's all I can tell you…The rim looked like a swimming pool.”

On another night, in a closer game, I’m not so sure Wade would have risked his subtly spiked doo by plunging repeatedly into the deep end. Despite being the Cavs’ most underrated player all season–a top-tier defender and 40% three point shooter–Wade is averaging a mere 3.7 attempts from deep per game. 

But tonight, perhaps with Niang’s advice, and in a hole deep enough for the three meter springboard, Wade was straight out of the swim scene in Caddyshack. Dean tossed hesitation to the wind and threw basketballs into that pool-sized rim like an angry swim instructor tossing feeble children into cold water. It was beautiful. Cleveland needs so much more of it.  

On the heels of a brutal loss to the Knicks on Sunday–perhaps the season’s worst–the slumping Cavs, like a dog afraid of (you guessed it!) water, had their tails between their legs for most of the game. But the fourth quarter tonight was the kind of run that can remind a team like Cleveland how good they can be. And they can be so good.

Nobody needs to hear it more than themselves.

The Cavs take on Atlanta tomorrow at 7:30 pm ET. Here’s hoping they reclaim their mojo more permanently, and that Dean Wade forgets about his hair and falls in love with the diving board.  

I’m away on personal and freelance duty the rest of this week, but nonetheless, cheers, and go Cavs.