Very rarely are offseason transactions about anything other than basketball. Yet, because of their own promises to Dwyane Wade over the last few seasons, that is exactly where the Miami Heat find themselves.
According to popular thought, Wade took a pay cut to stay with the Heat to bring LeBron James and crew into the fold. Not only that, it has been widely accepted that Miami management told him the Heat would take care of him when the back end of his career approached. More or less, Pat Riley would reward Wade with more money than he deserved during the twilight of his career for sacrificing his earning potential at a time when his abilities demanded $20 million per year.
In a blue sky scenario, it works. Wade, who has been the face of the franchise since he was drafted by the Heat in 2003, would end his career with the franchise in the same way a lesser version of Derek Jeter was able to do the with the New York Yankees.
Then again, this isn’t baseball. There’s no hiding an aging superstar anywhere on the hardwood. Not if Miami wants any chance to succeed anytime in the relatively near future. Unlike Jeter’s farewell run with the Yankees, who were in no position to grasp at postseason straws anyway, and in a league whose salary cap is more a suggestion than a hardline, other reports have come out that Miami wants to make major runs at superstars during the 2016 offseason.
This is troubling for both parties because Wade — again, reportedly — wants to test free agency, since he thinks he can attract a contract of $20 million annually.
Here is the thing: At the time of Riley’s “promise” to Wade of rewarding him down the line, it was probably a safe assumption that the former figured the latter had enough self awareness to realize that he’s no longer a player worth $20 million a year. Even if Wade truly wanted to call in the favors he has done for Miami, Riley would only have to overpay him a few million dollars more than what he was worth on the open market, which he never likely thought would be around the $20 million a year range.
However, if Dwyane Wade believes he is a $20 million a year player, this changes everything — not merely because it is a delusional number, but because there’s probably at least one team in the NBA willing to overpay for his services. This raises the question: Even if Riley wants to honor his original agreement with Wade — if the agreement was made in the way we have been told to believe it was — can he justify paying a far less durable and impactful player that type of yearly salary if it means jeopardizing the franchise long term?
This is where honesty should come into play. Even if the previous behind-closed-door agreements were made with a handshake, promise, and wink of the eye by Riley, everyone involved needs to prevent a compounding of the problem at hand — which is the (theoretical) idea that Dwyane Wade doesn’t have much left to offer a rebuilding team, specifically not for $20 million a year, especially if said team wants to be in play for the Kevin Durant sweepstakes in 2016, as reports are now suggesting Miami would like to be.
That goes for both sides as well, not strictly Miami’s. If Wade feels he deserves that type of money, whether he can get it or not, testing free agency is the smart move. That’s not holding the Heat hostage or putting a metaphorical gun to their head; it is simply a smart business decision. At the same time, it is unlikely that Riley feels he is worth that type of loot, so he should explain this to Wade in great detail, and plan for the worst case scenario — which sees another NBA team offer Wade more money than he is worth at this point, or at the very least, offering him more than Riley would feel comfortable overbidding against.
There’s also this idea of the perception of the Miami Heat taking a hit if Wade were to leave the franchise without Riley offering a strong counteroffer to whatever is hurled at him in the open market. So what? It is only the perception of them that will change. Players who are offered large sums of money in the primes of their careers aren’t going to avoid Miami because they may have changed course on a promise to a player at one point.
Plus, perception is merely an idea — in this case, an idea of what an organization is or could be down the road. The perception to other NBA players will only be put in the vacuum of possible earning potentials for themselves, guesses at individual and team successes year-to-year.
As for the fan base, well, a similar thing applies. Fans can be told — even if only through organizational propaganda — that there are really only two options for them in this Wade contract scenario.
1 – Offer him far more than what he is worth now, realizing that it will come at the expense of being competitive and luring prized free agents over the next few years.
2 – They “tried,” yet it was time to part ways with him so the Heat can look to rebuild as quickly as possible by way of getting a max-player or two that are more closely to — or actually in — their primes. This can be done instead of rewarding Wade for past accomplishments and sacrifices.
The latter option seems cold, one that fans might not originally accept, yet it is fixable — as “winning” is indeed a cure-all in the realm of pro sports and ending ideas of negative perceptions.
Regardless, Miami is in a weird, no-win situation. No matter what they do during this offseason with Wade, it will be met with second-guessing, and character grenades will be not so gently tossed toward the general direction of Pat Riley — who will either be accused of losing his managerial clout if he were to overpay Wade, or tagged as a cold liar, who broke a deal with a player who selflessly gave up more money for the team to win during the LeBron era.
That’s exactly why Riley needs to not care how his decision, no matter which one he feels is the best, alters the perception of his power. Whatever he actually ends up doing will be met with scorn by someone, over something, and only time will tell which decision was the better of the two. Moreover, it is quite possible that both decisions available are the wrong ones, but narratives aren’t told in that fashion.
The exact same should be said for Dwyane Wade. His image is a selfless, team-first type of player who has helped Miami reach the pinnacle of success a few different times with varying rosters. If he wants to cash in now on money previously lost via his team-first mentality, then good for him, and if there’s a team willing to give him what he wants, even better.
Even if Miami makes a similar offer to that of another team on the open market, so much so that people start to pressure him to take, yet another, home discount, it doesn’t mean he should. That’s not him turning his back on Miami. It is more simple than that. It is business.
It is all business. The NBA is that. We can continue to romanticize the Pat Rileys of the world because he has rings on his fingers, but it doesn’t change what he’s paid to do, which is to put the most competitive team on the court year after year, and if he feels that’s best accomplished without Miami’s franchise icon, so be it. It is his gig.
Everyone involved — Riley, Miami management, Wade, and even the fans — needs to realize it. Everyone is doing what is best for themselves, because that’s all that truly matters in the business world. There are very few fairytale endings in sports careers, especially ones with as many moving parts as this one, so now everyone needs to stop acting as though there’s a magical beanstalk to plant which results in one.
Collectively hold your breath, Miami Heat and/or Dwyane Wade fans, it is going to a bumpy offseason — one for which no solution to this problem exists. Even if there was a fix-all for both sides to agree on, it should be probably be ignored; altruism, compassion, and compromising in sports rarely do anything but make everything worse and delay the inevitable ruining of relationships. Miami and Wade have already tried it, and look where it has gotten them — to this postseason of pending doom.
I think the Wu-Tang Clan said it best: C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) — everything that goes with it is true. It makes perfect sense for all parties involved in this disaster to play to the lowest common denominator, which is the cash, and likely results in a messy divorce between Wade and the Heat — and, really, is probably the right move for both parties. Even if it isn’t, it is the move the Heat should make if they want to win sooner rather than later anyway — which is the medicine to fix the backlash they’ll receive for letting Wade walk.
If you want to reward Wade, Miami, do so with a statue or something. Your perception might take a hit today, but carrying around the decomposed corpse over the next few years for $20 million per won’t help you either. You can’t win today, so you’re better off attempting to win tomorrow.
