Top > Sport > 2006 > December > 2006-12-10

Sports Illustrated Sportsman of Year Announced

Dwyane Wade, NBA Finals most valuable player (MVP), has been chosen as the 2006 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year after he led the Miami Heat to the franchise`s first championship. The Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year issue will appear in newsstands Wednesday. Wade is not only Finals MVP he holds two All-Star Game appearances and a career-scoring average of 22.9 points per game. He also runs the Dwyane Wade Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps youths to reach their educational and athletic goals through mentoring. Wade will be awarded the new Sportsman of the Year sterling silver trophy made by Tiffany & Co., at a party held in his honor in New York on December 14.

Sports Illustrated writer S.L. Price, a former Miami Herald journalist, writes about Wade in the magazine and tells the readers about Wade`s life from his difficult childhood up to his current glory and fame. ``But here`s the factor, more than any other, that may decide if Dwyane Wade can survive even success: he likes difficulty. Ease makes him anxious. Perfect makes him squirm. But set him up with an early childhood from hell? Put him in a two-game hole in the Finals? He dares you to doubt him.``

Wade is only the fifth NBA player to be awarded the Sportsman of the year award, the other 4 are: Bill Russell (1968), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1985), Michael Jordan (1991) and Tim Duncan and David Robinson (2003). He is also the first prize recipient from the Miami area in more than a decade, since former Dolphins` coach Don Shula receives the award in 1993.