Heat star Dwyane Wade skips out on exit meeting
While LeBron James and Chris Bosh spoke with the media about the qualms of their future and what lies ahead during the Miami Heat’s exit interviews (mostly beating around the bush in regards to their impending free agency), Dwyane Wade was nowhere to be found.
ESPN and every other publication will attempt to read into Wade’s absence, but the truth is each guess holds as much weights as the next. Coming off a NBA Finals where the world got a first-hand glance at what could lie ahead for the 2006 Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade has a lot of questions to answer this summer.
The biggest question is player salary. Like James and Bosh, Wade has the option to opt in or out of his current contract that was signed in the summer of 2010. But many suspect he will opt into the $20 million deal, though their guesses possess no actual backing. Wade is far past his prime and if he opts out of the $20 million, he definitely won’t be making that much money through the remainder of his career.
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The issue is that if Wade opts in, he hinders the flexibility of the Miami Heat going into the summer and if the Finals didn’t make it evident enough for the casual viewer, this Heat team needs help. It’s not often you say that about a team coming off a NBA Finals appearance, but with Wade declining and the supporting cast flamed out, it’s time to move pieces and make new, meaningful additions. And for that to happen it’s gonna take all of the Big 3 to take a pay cut in order to do so.
What kind of pay cut are we speaking on? That part is unclear, but if either is making $20 million, especially the lesser third of the Big 3, it’ll be a problem going forward in regards to competing with the Western Conference.
Pride is strong within superstars. We saw how Allen Iverson flamed out of the league because he couldn’t come to grips with the player he was. This could be Wade’s path out of the league, but if the future of the team is in his best considerations, we’ll see lots of change this summer.