MIAMI — Dwyane Wade was 12, watching on television in Chicago, when Scottie Pippen leapt to the 3-point line, fingertips outstretched, to obstruct a Hubert Davis jump shot as the Knicks tried to salvage a pivotal playoff game against the Michael Jordan-less Bulls.

It was 1994, and a panicked Madison Square Garden exhaled when Davis made two free throws to seal Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The whistle of the referee Hue Hollins spared the Knicks from facing elimination in Chicago against a three-time championship team that was tossed to the has-been heap when Jordan walked away before the season.

So was it a foul from where Wade sat?

“I’m on the Chicago side, so it was a bad call,” he said before Miami opened the post-LeBron James era Wednesday night with a 107-95 victory over the short-handed Washington Wizards behind Wade, Chris Bosh and point guard Norris Cole. “But if I was on the Knicks’ side, I guess that’s a good call.”

On the Knicks’ side that night, on the way to a seven-game N.B.A. finals defeat against Houston, was Coach Pat Riley, who has been Wade’s career-long ally in Miami, including the four years with James, or Heir Jordan.