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It has been a tough summer for Heat Nation. Miami said goodbye to one of their icons when Dwyane Wade announced that he had signed with his hometown team, the Chicago Bulls. Wade, unhappy with Miami’s offer to him, decided it was time to call team president Pat Riley’s bluff after taking many payouts over the years to allow other superstars like LeBron James to play in South Beach. Riley admitted that it’s been a “tough summer” and “regrets” not doing all that he could to keep his superstar talent in Miami.
He spoke with Barry Jackson at the Miami Herald about the situation,
“What happened with Dwyane floored me. And I’m going to miss the fact of what I might have had planned for him and his future and how I saw the end and my thought process in how I could see his end here with the Heat. You are what you think. It’s my responsibility to sort of make that happen. I didn’t make it happen.
“Dwyane left and the buck really stops here. I’m not trying to fall on the sword for anybody. I have great regret I didn’t put myself in the middle of it and immerse myself in the middle of it and get in a canoe and paddle to the Mediterranean if I had to, be in New York when he arrived on the 6th and greet him at the airport. I didn’t do that. I wasn’t there in the middle of that negotiation and that’s my job. It’s not going to be the same without him. But we will forge ahead.
“I have been here when Zo left, Shaq left, when Brian Grant, Eddie Jones. But Dwyane is unique. There will always be a key under the mat. I just hope it doesn’t get too rusty.”
It is great that the team is still open to a reunion, but in the meantime things are not looking good. The team did re-sign their big man Hassan Whiteside to a max deal, however, another superstar might still be on the sideline. Chris Bosh, once a part of Miami’s Big 3, has missed most of the last two seasons after a blood clot was discovered in his lung. Despite trying to play this season, Bosh’s season was cut short when another blood clot was discovered this time in his leg.
Riley opened up about the future of Bosh in Miami saying,
It’s always fluid. It always has been since there was a diagnosis and a decision for him not to play the rest of the season. It’s a positive environment right now with Chris and his doctors. Our doctors are constantly communicating, more so now than ever. I know Chris wants to play. Obviously, we would be open to that but this is still a very fluid situation. On this day, there is not an answer. I wish I could give you one.
Riley said the team hopes to know more later this summer, but the team is left in an awkward situation. In a perfect world, Bosh would play and lead Miami back to the playoffs. The team still owes Bosh $25.2 million next season and hopes that he can at least be medically cleared to return. If not, the team is stuck with a lot of dead cap space that could have been used on retaining Wade or courting Kevin Durant.
