ORLANDO, Fla. _ The Dwyane Wade era is over for the Miami Heat, an era that had appeared only would end with the retirement of the All-Star guard who helped transform a football town into a championship basketball hotbed.
After 13 years of epic highs and numbing lows with the only NBA franchise he had called his own, Wade late Wednesday night told the Chicago Bulls he would be joining his hometown franchise, where he grew up following the exploits of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
Unable to secure the type of career-reward contract from the Heat he believed he was due in the wake of three NBA championships and patience through a series of rebuilds that dropped the Heat into the draft lottery along the way, Wade reached an agreement with the Bulls after meetings earlier in the day with three other suitors, including the Heat.
The decision extends the Heat's rebuild from the 2014 free-agency departure of LeBron James back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, with Wade's final game with the Heat coming in a Game 7 loss to the Toronto Raptors in May in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
For Wade, Wednesday's decision means a move to a reworked Chicago lineup that includes NBA veterans Jimmy Butler, Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez.
For the Heat, it likely means a decided turn toward the youth of Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Briante Weber and perhaps Tyler Johnson, who has a four-year, $50 million offer sheet in place from the Brooklyn Nets that the Heat have the right to match.
The Heat, in fact, will have to now work quickly on a rebuild of their own, with the timing of that offer sheet to Johnson otherwise to possible further compromise their personnel flexibility.
The Heat now will have $19 million in salary-cap space to spend on free-agent signings or to utilize in trades this offseason, as well as an additional $2.9 million salary-cap exception.
At the moment, a Heat lineup would look something like Whiteside at center, Chris Bosh at power forward, Winslow at small forward, Goran Dragic at point guard and either Richardson or a player to be added in a trade or in free agency at shooting guard.
The choices at shooting guard at this late stage of free agency are limited, with Lance Stephenson among the options. The Heat also retained Josh McRoberts in case Bosh is unable to return from the blood clots that have sidelined him in each of the past two seasons.
After years of salary givebacks to allow the Heat to acquire players such as James, Bosh and other contributors to the Heat's NBA championship teams in 2012 and '13, Wade, who guided the franchise to their first championship in 2006, seemingly reached his breaking point with Heat President Pat Riley and Heat owner Micky Arison.
And with that, a player who pushed Dan Marino for the most popular in South Florida sports history, put his Heat No. 3 jersey aside, a jersey likely next to be seen eventually hanging from the rafters at AmericanAirlines Arena.
According to a party familiar with negotiations that included a Wednesday meeting between Arison and the All-Star guard in New York, at question was the team's ability to trade the contract of McRoberts in order to create additional cap space to sate Wade.
A source involved in the process told the Sun Sentinel that the Heat were finding it difficult to simply offload McRoberts' contract for cap space, as the Golden State Warriors did with Andrew Bogut to the Dallas Mavericks, and the San Antonio Spurs did with Boris Diaw to the Utah Jazz. Neither the Warriors nor the Spurs were forced to attach anything additional to achieve the cap space needed for the Warriors to sign Kevin Durant and the Spurs to add Pau Gasol.
The Sun Sentinel previously reported that the Heat had a standing offer of two years at $40 million total on the table for Wade, with a player option for the second year. Wade reportedly was seeking something closer to the two-year, $53 million package the Denver Nuggets were positioned to offer or a three-year contract in the $20 million annual range.
Against that backdrop, Wade took meetings in New York on Wednesday with the Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks and Heat, after a meeting with Chicago had to be canceled due to travel issues for the Bulls.
For the Heat, there also was a ticking clock at play beyond Wade's timetable.
With the NBA's 2016-17 personnel calendar restarting Thursday following the annual signing moratorium, the Heat will receive that four-year, $50 million offer sheet for Johnson from the Nets. Once the Heat receive that offer sheet, they will have three days to decide whether to match. Also, the Heat have a four-year, $98 million agreement in place with Whiteside that only could be finalized once Wade's situation was addressed.
The Heat had contingency plans for additional cap space in place earlier in the week if Durant had opted to accept their free-agent overtures. A Durant signing likely would have made it easier to sweeten a trade of McRoberts
Wade never had been the highest-paid player on the Heat during his 13 seasons, with Eddie Jones the first on an annual list that also has included Shaquille O'Neal, Shawn Marion, Jermaine O'Neal, Bosh and LeBron James.
Next up for Wade is a Thursday appearance as co-host on LIVE with Kelly, the syndicated morning show with host Kelly Ripa.
While Wade, 34, also had been linked to reported interest from the Cleveland Cavaliers, there had been no movement or momentum in that direction.
Had Wade accepted the Heat offer of a $20 million salary for next season, it would have put him third on the Heat's payroll and the two-year, $40 million offer would have put him fourth in terms of committed total salary going forward.
Bosh is due $23.7 million next season, with $76 million due over the next three seasons. Whiteside's contract will pay $22 million next season. Beyond that, Dragic will earn $15.9 million next season, still due $70 million over the next four seasons.
Whiteside had indicated a willingness to reduce his overall compensation had the Heat been able to sign Durant. There had been no public discussion of a willingness by Whiteside to do the same for Wade.
