Dwyane Wade (3) defended by Dwight Howard (left) (AP)
For the past two years, the sports world has fantasized, been turned upside down and exhausted hours of debate about the pending free agency of LeBron James in the summer of 2010.
Will he stay in his home state of Ohio and be at the forefront of Cleveland’s first sports championship since 1964? Will the King take his game to the mecca of all sporting arenas, Madison Square Garden, and resurrect the once proud Knicks? Will he join forces with hip hop mogul, close friend and New Jersey Nets co owner Jay Z as the team prepares for their transition to Brooklyn in 2011? And so on and so on.
While the limelight of this summer will undoubtedly shine squarely on the broad shoulders of the 24-year-old James and his league altering decision, somewhat lost in the hoopla has been fellow free-agent-to-be Dwyane Wade.
That focus may have temporarily shifted when the former Marquette star and reigning NBA scoring champion stated on Wednesday that he would relish the chance to join forces with Orlando Magic center and 2009 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Dwight Howard in the not-so-distant future.
“If I could pick one player in the league today to play with—and most people think I’d say LeBron James—I would pick Dwight,” the Heat guard said after Wednesday’s practice, as reported by FanHouse.com. “I’ve played with a dominant center (Shaquille O’Neal) before, and there’s nothing like it. It changes the whole game. It’s why I’d love to play with Dwight. He’s a phenomenal center who has only scratched the surface of where he’ll be. And he’s the type of guy you’d really like to be around.”
Know equally for his infectious personality (think of the kid in a candy store metaphor and you begin to get the picture) as he is for on court brilliance, Howard has been the bedrock of the Orlando Magic since becoming a resident of the Sunshine State.
Drafted first overall out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy in the 2004 NBA Draft, “Superman” has started in all but one game in his five-year career, has averaged a double double for his career (17.3 ppg, 12.5 rpg), has been selected to three All-Star games (starting in the last two), won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the 2008 Redeem Team, is a two-time All-NBA First selection (2008-09), NBA Slam Dunk champion (2008) and helped revitalize the Magic into a contender, punctuated by the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance in 14 years in 2009.
Did I also mention that the 6’11”, 265-pound center turns 24 on Dec. 8?
A Wade and Howard reunion (the two played together during the 2008 Summer Olympics), however appealing it may sound, appears, at the outset, more than difficult to pull off.
While teams across the NBA landscape have shed contracts and cut costs to remain under the league’s salary cap, the Magic have gone against the current economic grain and have made a conscious effort to build around their franchise center in recent years—and have not pinched pennies to do so.
Beginning with a six-year sign-and-trade deal in July 2007 with forward Rashard Lewis (six years, $118 million) and, most recently, trading for eight-time All Star Vince Carter this summer (who is set to earn $17.1 million next season), the Magic, in order to obtain Wade, would have to send an estimated $18 million to the Heat as part of a sign-and-trade deal this summer.
Prior to the 2004-05 season (Wade’s second), the Chicago, Ill. native was paired with arguably the game’s most dominant center the Association has ever seen in O’Neal. In just two short years, the duo won the franchise’s first championship, but the euphoria was short lived as the Big Aristotle was traded to Phoenix in 2008.
In the nearly two years since said trade, Wade, who has the second highest career scoring average in MU history (19.7), has ascended to the same stratosphere as Kobe Bryant and James as one the most dynamic and versatile scorers in the NBA.
While Wade’s individual brilliance and heroics have been impossible to ignore, the seventh-year guard, due to the absence of a complimentary post presence, has failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs the past two seasons.
“I said from Day One that I wanted to be in Miami, that maybe I could get certain players to come to Miami, but at the same time, this is my only chance at free agency,” said Wade, according to FanHouse. “There are a lot of possibilities out there. And nothing is impossible.”
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