Before the Miami Heat became NBA champions for the first time, Gary Payton needed to school Dwyane Wade on the bigger picture during the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Chicago Bulls.Among a roster of combustible personalities, tension fluctuated throughout the Heat’s 2005-06 season. Shaquille O’Neal had been fined $25,000 for criticizing referees. Udonis Haslem was suspended Game 2 after throwing his mouthpiece in the series opener. James Posey had his own suspension after being ejected from Game 3 for hip-checking Kirk Hinrich.Frustration hit a new level in June 2006 when Payton and Wade argued in a huddle during Game 4 of the series. The argument centered around Miami’s 11th turnover just before halftime, a crosscourt pass Wade threaded through four Bulls defenders before it bounced off his teammate’s hands and out of bounds.“I didn’t think (Wade) understood what was going on,” Payton told The Athletic. “I think he thought a young, brash kid could talk to a veteran the way he did. But I had to tell him, ‘Yo, this is a big brother thing. This ain’t about no ego. I’m just trying to tell you how to get over it, be a champion and be a man.’“And that’s what happened.”Twenty years ago as of Saturday, in a postseason where mistakes are normal but margins are thin, a veteran-laden roster featuring a Hall of Fame coach in Pat Riley was highlighted by Wade, then a 24-year-old phenom, a third-year pro hungry to prove himself among the more established players. Much of the team’s fortunes rested on Wade’s shoulders, and veterans like Payton, O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker and Jason Williams all were hoping for one last shot at NBA supremacy.After that Windy City dispute, one of which Mourning called “quarrels and adversity,” the Heat banded together to not only win the series against the Bulls in six games, but later take out the New Jersey Nets (4-1) and Detroit Pistons (4-2) to advance to the NBA Finals. After falling behind 2-0 against the Dallas Mavericks, the Heat then won four straight games to earn its first Larry O’Brien Trophy, the deciding game a 95-92 nail-biter on June 20, 2006, in which Wade finished with 36 points and 10 rebounds and was ultimately named NBA Finals MVP.Dwyane Wade, guarded here by the Dallas Mavericks’ Josh Howard, was named the NBA Finals MVP after leading the Miami Heat to their first league championship in 2006. (Jeff Haynes / AFP via Getty Images)In bringing a championship, Wade helped to claim a county and more. The title did its part in cementing Miami-Dade County and the surrounding South Florida area as a viable hotbed for championship hoops. Since Miami drafted Wade with the No. 5 pick in 2003, the franchise ranks second in the NBA with 143 playoff wins and three titles.But the 2006 finals remains Wade’s basketball masterpiece, one that saw him join Michael Jordan (1993), Rick Barry (1967) and Elgin Baylor (1962) as the only players with four consecutive 35-point games in the league’s championship series. From Games 3 through 6, Wade scored 16 more points in the paint than any Mavericks player.“Bottom line, in the finals, it was kind of Jordan-esque. It really was,” Mourning told The Athletic of Wade’s performance. “He averaged almost 40 points a game in the finals. That’s getting it done. And it just took the others to kind of come together and do their part — you know, me, Shaq, (James) Posey, J-Dub (Jason Williams), Udonis (Haslem), and Antoine Walker, all of us.“We contributed in our own little ways from that perspective, but D-Wade was phenomenal to watch. He threw us on his shoulders. He just carried us.”