Will it be the Heat or the Bulls? Dwyane Wade, like his pal LeBron James, is keeping quiet for now.
A billboard in support of free agent basketball player Dwyane Wade remaining with the Miami Heat is displayed in downtown Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) Not yet, anyway.
His appearance at a Tuesday morning news conference in South Florida was postponed, the latest chapter in a free agency saga that has the Miami Heat on edge about the possibility of losing him to another team.
Wade's youth basketball camp for children was beginning Tuesday, and part of the day's itinerary was to include a question-and-answer session alongside Alonzo Mourning about the charity weekend they will headline in South Florida later this month. Shortly after midnight Tuesday, officials for the charity event called the Summer Groove said the news conference would be rescheduled.
Wade's side had concerns that free agency would be the only matter discussed at the news conference, and there had been internal discussions for several days about canceling the event.
A free agent for the first time, Wade is torn between staying in Miami and playing elsewhere, most likely Chicago. He's had at least two conversations with the Bulls since free agency began last week, plus has met with the New York Knicks and New Jersey Nets.
Of course, he's also met with the Heat, first getting contacted just after the free-agent window opened at 12:01 a.m. last Thursday, then having an informal chat with team officials in Chicago. On Monday, Wade met with team owner Micky Arison, a few hours after arriving back in Miami for the first time since free agency began.
He's one of the three clear headliners of the free-agent crop, the others being LeBron James and Chris Bosh. Wade and Bosh, who are both represented by Chicago-based agent Henry Thomas, have been particularly close during free agency, holding some of their meetings in the same building in Chicago and dining together on occasion.
"They want to feel like they have evaluated everything about each situation," Thomas wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Monday. "It is fair to say, that the decision for both has been harder than either imagined."