Miami Heat not only entered the week two games behind the Chicago Bulls for the No. 7 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, but also with the full attention of Bulls guard Dwyane Wade.
Because even as he looks to what's next for the team he joined in July, he acknowledged on a podcast recorded with Yahoo's The Vertical that he also is caught up with the team with which he spent the first 13 seasons of his career.
"I think it's still there. Like, there's times where in my mind, if I look at the schedule and if I see the Heat is playing someone, say, 'Heat versus Denver,' I'm like, 'Dang, we got Denver?' It's in my mind. I mean, 13 years," Wade told Vertical site founder Adrian Wojnarowski. "And it's not even just me, it's people around me. 'Hey, man, you coming to the city?' I'm like, 'Uh, no, that's probably the Heat. The Bulls are somewhere else.' "
Wade received a warm ovation on Nov. 10 in his return to AmericanAirlines Arena, the Bulls' lone visit of the season. The Bulls won the season series 2-1, which could come into play as a potential playoff tiebreaker.
"I look back at those 13 years and I just smile," he said on the podcast. "It's hard to reflect while you're in it. But now that I'm out of those 13 years with the organization, I look back. I think people think that I want the Heat to do bad or people probably think that, 'Oh, he still follows the Heat?' Yes, I follow the Heat. I watch all their games.
"I'm checking up on them because at the end of the day, it's always going to be a part of me. Their organization is always going to be my organization in some form and some way because of what I was able to accomplish there and where my career stands. I want nothing but success for them."
Wade, though, was particularly candid about not being directly contacted during last summer's free-agency negotiations. He said on the podcast he wasn't sure if Riley's approach wasn't a calculated measure to create the parting, something that resonated beyond overtures from owner Micky Arison, former co-captain Udonis Haslem or Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
"I love Pat and I know he loves me," Wade said. "The fact that we didn't talk, that hurt. And that was my deciding factor.
"It wasn't about the Arison family, I know they love me and I know they wanted me there. I know Spo wanted me there. I know Udonis and those guys. But at the end of the day, I didn't hear from the guy I needed to."
Wade also shed insight on how the all-consuming Heat culture might not be for every player.
"What Pat and Micky have been able to establish in Miami has been incredible and there's some great things about it, and there's some things that are not so great from the standpoint of how controlling it can be at times," he said. "But from a basketball standpoint, it's phenomenal."
Wade also spoke of Chris Bosh and Goran Dragic being addressed at a higher level when it came to contract negotiations, although he stressed he did not begrudge either their contracts.
As for the precarious position of a Bulls team that was expected to have a far brighter playoff outlook than the Heat, Wade said, "There's still time. You hope you can still do it. But time does tick away on you, too. And I've been on teams where ... the clock did tick out on us."
