"Whatever bitterness Dwyane Wade might have had toward Shaquille O'Neal - the former Heat center trashed his teammates on his way out of town in 2008 - has subsided.

Wade, who played with O'Neal for 3 1/2 seasons and combined with him to win the NBA title in 2006, expressed nothing but praise and admiration for O'Neal a day after "The Diesel" announced his retirement at 39.

"Just always appreciative of the opportunity to play with one of the greatest to ever put on the NBA jersey," Wade said after Thursday's shoot-around before Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

"We had some great years together, so I'm humbled, and totally honored to have been a teammate. But as a fan, just seeing the dominance of what he did will never be forgotten, and what he did off the court, always fun-loving."

But not always gracious. He never seemed to get along, for instance, with Heat coach Stan Van Gundy, although he had a good relationship with coach and executive Pat Riley.

After Shaq was traded to Phoenix in February 2008, he said of his new team:

"I love playing for this coach (Mike D'Antoni) and I love playing with these guys. We have professionals who know what to do. No one is asking me to play with Chris Quinn or Ricky Davis. I'm actually on a team again."

Wade took the high road Thursday.

"One thing about Shaq, he did it the way he wanted to do it," Wade said. "He said what he wanted to say, he did what he wanted to do. And not many people can say that."

Heat management saluted O'Neal with a video on the scoreboard during the first quarter Thursday.

O'Neal, who won four NBA titles and an MVP award in his 19 seasons, will hold his retirement press conference Friday afternoon in Orlando. He is fifth on the NBA all-time scoring list with 28,596 points in a career spent with Orlando, the L.A. Lakers, Miami, Phoenix, Cleveland and Boston."