MIAMI (AP) – Dwyane Wade cannot be clearer about this: He wants to wear a Miami Heat uniform again.
Someday.
After signing his one-year, $2.3 million deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Wade – speaking from his new locker room – told The Associated Press that Miami is “always in my heart” and that he took a serious look at whether this was the right time to return to the franchise where he spent his first 13 NBA seasons.
“Miami, the door’s always unlocked,” Wade told AP. “One day I want to retire in a Miami Heat jersey. I don’t know how that will happen, but I definitely want to make sure than when I decide to hang it up, that jersey is on. Whether it’s being back there or signing a one-day deal like Paul Pierce, I want to make sure that I go out the way I came in.”
The Heat have also indicated they would like a reunion many times – such as when they took out a full-page newspaper ad saying “We’ll leave a key under the mat for you” when he left Miami for Chicago last year and earlier this week, when Miami coach Erik Spoelstra talked about “our hopes for where he ends up eventually.”