Dwyane Wade is Dan Marino

Let’s not get too excited about what Dwyane Wade is doing…yet.

You can allude to MJ all you want – there were certainly plenty of holy crap moments from #3 last night – just don’t cement the comparisons yet.

Despite scoring 943 of the Heat’s 1010 points last night, Miami still has to win the series. They lose these next two games, and he’s a great player on a team that lost.

Besides that, according to Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, he’s actually Dan Marino.

All of that said, he set a record for most free throws made in a Finals game, and became the 6th player in NBA history to score 35 or more in three straight Finals games.

Dwyane Wade 2006
Shaquille O’Neal 2000, 2002
Allen Iverson 2001
Michael Jordan 1993
Rick Barry 1967
Elgin Baylor 1962

That’s not a bad list to be on, and his scattered drive through the entire Dallas team on that last play was incredible.

As great as Wade has been, for some reason our thoughts drift to Shaq, and what would be going on right now had he been able to trim down and take a backseat to Kobe Bryant like this.

If he had, the Lakers would be on their way to title number six, in all likelyhood. The way players were flocking to Shaq/Kobe, they’d have gotten Michael Finley, Nick Van Exel, and all the rest, don’t you think? Are Laker fans angst-ridden? You decide!

And Kevin Federline – what’s he doing there? Oh, and that list in the blockquotes? We totally ripped that from Sportscenter! Where would we be without ESPN and ESPN.com? That’s right – nowhere. SAD FACE!