Photo: Zac Schuss, @zacschuss

Dwyane Wade believes he could have extended his NBA career for another two seasons, but he preferred to retire while he was still capable of playing at a productive level.

Wade walked away from basketball in 2019 after 16 NBA seasons. Rather than continuing until his performance declined significantly, the Miami Heat legend felt it was the right moment to begin the next stage of his life.

“I was really ready to move to whatever the next phase of my life was. I felt basketball, that chapter needed to close. It needed to end before this generation saw me really, really bad.”

Wade was still contributing offensively during his final season, averaging around 16 points per game.

He believed he had enough left to continue playing but did not want younger fans to remember him primarily for struggling late in his career.

“I ended still good enough. I was averaging 16 points a game. I could get some buckets. Let me walk out that way. Because if I stayed two more seasons, which I thought I had about two more years to play, this generation would be like, ‘Don’t even have no discussion. Don’t have no debate about him. He’s terrible.’”