That moment comes for every athlete. Maybe it's the first time your teenage son gives you the hardest-fought game of 21 you've ever had. Maybe it's when you go to cut right and your aging knee takes a sharp left. Maybe it's when you head to the park to shoot hoops and someone says, "I've got the old man."
Father time comes for us all. Except maybe Vince Carter.
For one NBA legend, it may have been a bout with the Kings that made him realize that it was time to hang up the sneakers.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“When I knew it was over for me? These young guys came in and they were running so fast,” Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade said on J.J. Redick's "The Old Man and the Three" podcast. “I think we were playing Sacramento one game and I think De’Aaron Fox and Buddy [Hield], they were getting a shot up in like three seconds. And I was like, I can’t even get back in like three seconds, let alone you getting a shot up in three seconds.”
Wade retired after the 2018-19 season at the age of 37. After 16 years in the NBA, which included 13 All-Star game appearances and three NBA championships, the speed of the game finally caught up to the future Hall of Famer and he almost asked to come out of the game.
“I looked at coach and I almost said, ‘take me out,’ but my ego wouldn’t let me,” Wade said. “But I knew it was time. I was like, it’s time, these guys are too fast.”
RELATED: Can luck strike twice? Kings choose Fox as lottery rep
NBA
The Kings went 2-0 against Wade and the Heat in his final season in the league. There were more contributing factors to Wade's decision than just Fox and Hield, but this should be a reminder of just how fast of a pace Sacramento played at during the 2018-19 season.
They should strive to get back to that speed. And then maybe they could force a few other superstars to call it quits.