July 3
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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To a degree, an Allen Iverson-Heat marriage makes sense. For years, Pat Riley has run a last-chance saloon. But it's not going to happen the first week of free-agent negotiations. It's not going to happen at the July 8 start of the free-agent signing period. And it's not going to happen until after the July 12 window opens for Dwyane Wade to be eligible to sign an extension. Iverson makes sense because Iverson may not have many other options. But until the Knicks spend their mid-level exception, until Larry Brown gets an official rejection from Bobcats management, and until the remaining precious little cap space around the league is spent, Iverson doesn't have to move to Plan B. ..."
June 27
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Patrick Beverley tried to beat the system once. For that transgression he essentially was banished to the Ukraine. Now the rangy point 6-foot-1 guard is trying to beat the system again. This time, he gets to make the attempt at AmericanAirlines Arena. Forced to play a year overseas after admittedly having someone else write a paper for him during his time at the University of Arkansas, the 2007 Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year bided his time last season in the Ukrainian Basketball League until he was eligible for the NBA Draft. Selected at No. 42 Thursday night by the Los Angeles Lakers and then dealt to the Miami Heat, the sharp-shooting scorer will now try to beat the odds on ..."
June 27
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Alonzo Mourning is returning to the Miami Heat. He's just not returning to the court. The shot-blocking center who retired this past season and then became the first player in the franchise's 21 seasons to have his number retired, has agreed to a front-office position with the team as vice president of player programs and development. Mourning, 39, who has said he could not envision himself coaching due to his lack of patience, instead will get to work with the roster in a less formal setting, mostly mentoring the team's younger players away from the court. In the newly created position, Mourning also will work with the team in the community and have some involvement on the business end of ..."
June 26
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Blake Griffin arrived on cue. The wonderfully athletic power forward from Oklahoma was expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft since the Los Angeles Clippers won last month's lottery. Everything else surrounding Thursday's draft was mostly unscripted, a frenzy of trades and maneuvering that dramatically shuffled rosters around the league. With one exception. The Heat spent the day mostly as a spectator. It dealt its No. 43 second-round pick, LSU guard Marcus Thornton, the SEC Player of the Year, to New Orleans for second-round picks in 2010 and 2012. It later acquired the rights to Lakers second-round pick Patrick Beverley, a guard who played two seasons at Arkansas and then ..."
June 25
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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The NBA Draft has no Mr. Irrelevant. But the Heat will Thursday night. Unlike the NFL, the NBA does not celebrate the final selection of its draft. The Heat likely won't either. But there nonetheless likely will be applause when it invokes its right to the No. 60 pick. It means everyone then can go home. For the Heat, this well could prove an irrelevant exercise, with its first-round pick dealt to Minnesota in its 2007 acquisition of guard Ricky Davis. Its lone selections will come at Nos. 43 and 60. While a trade into the first round is possible, with several teams looking to unload selections in what sets up as one of the weakest drafts in years, the Heat's focus likely instead will be ..."
June 24
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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The Miami Heat is on the verge of having to put out a no-vacancy sign. Heat President Pat Riley said last week the team likely would be only able to carry 13 players at the start of next season to avoid the dollar-for-dollar luxury tax on excessive payrolls. Tuesday, the Heat moved to 11 players under contract for 2009-10, with the announcement that reserve point guard Chris Quinn has invoked his player option for next season. Quinn, who earned $973,000 last season, had to make a decision in advance of June 30 for his $1.1 million guarantee for next season. Quinn played sparingly last season, with the emergence of 2008 second-round pick Mario Chalmers as the team's starting point guard. He ..."
June 21
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ira Winderman
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A weekly look at five talking points that have the league buzzing: 1. Nothing to see here, folks. How weak is Thursday's NBA Draft? It has Heat Vice President of Player Personnel Chet Kammerer comparing it to the 2006 draft. For those who forget, that's the draft that had Andrea Bargnani going No. 1 to the Raptors, Adam Morrison at No. 3 to the Bobcats and Shelden Williams at No. 5 to the Hawks. "Hopefully," Kammerer said, "it's going to be a little bit better than 2006, which was kind of a bad draft. But I think it's similar to that, personally. I don't think it's anywhere near the caliber of last year's draft, for example." Last year, of course, was one of the most productive drafts in ..."
June 20
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Dwyane Wade is accustomed to getting the star treatment. But the Miami Heat guard found himself nearly speechless on Friday when he fulfilled a long-time goal of meeting President Barack Obama at the White House. ``It was an unbelievable dream come true,'' Wade said, a smile spreading across his face. ``We are both from Chicago. I've always wanted to get the opportunity to meet him, just to see what kind of person he is.'' ``When he came in the room, he said `D. Wade!' The way his face lit up to meet me had me speechless. I've never been that excited to meet a human being before.'' Wade and former Heat teammate Alonzo Mourning gathered with notable fathers from around the country to help ..."
June 20
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Dwyane Wade spent Friday in Washington with President Obama. But apparently the Miami Heat guard also is in a show-me state. A day after Heat President Pat Riley said the team could not go forward with a major personnel overhaul without his star guard first agreeing to an extension this summer, Wade indicated he might seek such action by the team before making such a commitment. "I'm there. Why not fast track this thing anyway while I'm there and let's not give it a chance to get to 2010?" said Wade, who can extend his contract starting July 12, or can opt out an become a free agent following next season. "I'm in my prime right now, playing the best basketball I've ever played, and I feel ..."
June 18
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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University of Miami guard Jack McClinton wanted to make sure he took something out of Wednesday's pre-draft tryout at AmericanAirlines Arena. So after he gave the Miami Heat's scouting braintrust a shooting exhibition, he huddled with coach Erik Spoelstra. "We were talking about my step-back," he said, "how effective it is, and adding a counter-move to it when they start crowding my space." While the two-time first-team All-ACC selection won't know his pro landing spot until the June 25 NBA Draft, he certainly tempted the Heat, converting 40 of 50 mid-range jumpers and 36 of 50 3-pointers in a drill against UConn point guard A.J. Price. "It went good," he said, sweat still dripping onto ..."
June 17
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Two Chicago guys with a common interest are scheduled to meet for the first time Friday. President Barack Obama has invited Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade to Washington. Wade has agreed to participate in a day-long event in honor of Father's Day, and focusing on male mentorship. After flying in from Chicago, where he is hosting a youth basketball camp, Wade will check in at the White House, and then travel to area community organizations to speak with young men from the Washington D.C. area about how they can achieve their aspirations. Then he will return to the White House for a town-hall meeting with the President, community leaders and other prominent young fathers. The day will conclude ..."
June 10
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Miami has the weather but apparently not the wherewithal when it comes to potentially hosting another NBA All-Star Game. In announcing this week that Los Angeles will host the All-Star Game for the second time in eight years with the awarding of the 2011 gala to Staples Center, Commissioner David Stern said the preference was to rotate the mid-February event in warm-weather cities. "There's a pattern emerging," Stern acknowledged. "I think that our guests seem to come in greater numbers to warm weather, and that's something that we're going to have to face up to and deal with as we seek to attract the largest number." The only time the Heat hosted All-Star Weekend was in 1990 at ..."
June 9
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Miami Heat center Jermaine O'Neal has exercised his contract option for next season. Due $23 million in 2009-10 on the final year of his contract, O'Neal's decision was due by the end of the month. Reserve forward Yakhouba Diawara also invoked his option for next season, which calls for $945,000 on the second year of the two-year free-agent deal he signed with the team last summer. The Heat still has two remaining bookkeeping issues to be addressed before the July 1 start of the NBA's free-agency period. Reserve center Mark Blount almost certainly will bypass an early-termination option and instead collect the $8 million he is due next season on the final year of his contract. Unless he ..."
June 7
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ira Winderman
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A weekly look at five talking points that have the league buzzing: 1. Bosh: Let's talk in 2010. Good for Chris Bosh. He took a stand. There will be no extension this summer, the Raptors power forward declared last week. Instead, his next contract move will come at the July 1, 2010 start of free agency. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have not been nearly as definitive, even though it is unlikely either would entertain an extension when they become eligible this summer, with July 12 the first day Wade could close such a Heat deal and July 18 the first day a Cavaliers extension agreement could be reached with James. The reality, though, is Bosh's preemptive statement preempts nothing. If ..."
June 2
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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More than a month after the Heat's final game, forward James Jones remains uncertain about the approach he will take with the right wrist that kept him out for the first half of the season. During the latter stages of the Heat's first-round playoff series against the Hawks, Jones said he planned to have another surgery on the wrist to regain 100 percent range of motion. Jones, however, said Monday that such range of motion could trigger the same pain that led to last October's surgery for a ruptured tendon. Instead, the 3-point specialist said he might play next season with the wrist at 80 percent. "To get my range back," he said, "I would have to have the surgery. But regaining that type ..."
May 31
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ira Winderman
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A weekly look at five talking points that have the league buzzing: 1. Not doubting Thomas. It is no coincidence that Heat guard Dwyane Wade and Raptors forward Chris Bosh, to the dollar, hold similar contracts. Wade will earn $14,410,581 in 2009-10. So will Bosh. Both can opt out after the coming season. Or both could earn $17,149,243 in 2010-11. Such is the measure of having the same agent, in this case Chicago-based Henry Thomas. While an amiable sort, Thomas also tends to remain low key to the point of reticence. When it comes to the two following a similar free-agent path, he leaves the talking to others. So Dwyane, for all the renewed speculation about a Wade-LeBron free-agent pairing ..."
May 30
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Although the June 25 NBA Draft could prove to be a waiting game for the Heat, Vice President of Player Personnel Chet Kammerer said the team has put an early-detection system into place. Despite holding only the Nos. 43 and 60 selections, Kammerer said the team is looking at prospects ranked significantly higher. Heat President Pat Riley said earlier this month that the Heat is considering trading into the first round. The team's first-round pick was dealt to Minnesota in the 2007 deal for Ricky Davis. But Kammerer said the team's vigilance is mostly protection against players unexpectedly dropping into the Heat's range. "From 15 to 30, we definitely are focusing in on them, as well as the ..."
May 28
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ethan J. Skolnick
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"Yeah, yeah," Brian Grant said, laughing. "What am I doing on that screen?" Grant, like so many, has been watching the NBA's compelling conference finals. So he's seen the NBA's commercial, reviving the memory of what once qualified as a painful experience: Kobe Bryant feeding Shaquille O'Neal for an alley-oop, over the head of a big, strong, young dude with dreadlocks, part of the Los Angeles Lakers' fourth-quarter comeback against his Portland Trail Blazers in Game 7 of the 2000 West finals. That moment, like many others, seems long ago. "I've learned you can't live in the past with anything that you do in life," Grant said, moments before meeting with local media in his home of ..."
May 26
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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The Heat's nightmare scenario has turned into a dream sequence for three of the four remaining teams in the NBA's conference finals. Such is the impact of the potentially apocalyptic Summer of 2010. Either you're all in, enduring full-fledged night sweats, or you're not sweating next year's potential free-agent free-for-all. The Cavaliers? They're sweating more than their 2-1 deficit to the Magic in these Eastern Conference finals, with 2010 the summer when LeBron James can become a free agent. That puts them in the same boat as the Heat, which could lose Dwyane Wade as a free agent a year from July. Because of that, both the Heat and Cavaliers have been hoarding cap space for the Summer ..."
May 24
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ira Winderman
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A weekly look at five talking points that have the league buzzing: 1. Griffin is the one? A year ago at this time there only was confusion. At the time, Bulls executive John Paxson insisted his team had yet to decide between Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley with the NBA Draft's No. 1 selection, essentially holding the Heat hostage at No. 2. If it was all a ruse, it was deception with an edge. Paxson grew decidedly agitated at last year's pre-draft camp in Orlando when it was suggested that the Bulls had already settled on Rose, their eventual choice. Now fast-forward to last week's lottery, when, within hours of the Clippers securing the No. 1 pick, Mike Dunleavy, the team's coach and ..."
May 22
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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The commitment to South Florida, Dwyane Wade said Thursday, remains strong. His commitment to a long-term future as a member of the Miami Heat? That, the high-scoring shooting guard said, will come down to factors beyond his area charitable concerns. Still, if Thursday was any indication, Wade's plans for civic involvement in South Florida transcends both the remaining two seasons on his contract, as well as his July 1, 2010 opt-out window. Wade joined former Heat teammate Alonzo Mourning at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for Thursday's formal announcement of the annual charity weekend Mourning founded 13 years ago. The difference this year is the event no longer is known as Zo's ..."
May 20
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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It has been a year of comparison for Michael Beasley. At this time last year, it was the merits of Beasley as a potential No. 1 NBA Draft pick ahead of Derrick Rose. Throughout this past season, after Rose went No. 1 to the Bulls, there was the debate of Beasley being taken No. 2 by the Heat, ahead of O.J. Mayo or even Brook Lopez. And closer to home, there was the issue of Beasley playing off the bench behind steady-but-unspectacular Heat power forward Udonis Haslem. Now there is another comparison, one that comes courtesy of Tuesday's NBA Draft lottery: Beasley vs. Oklahoma power forward Blake Griffin, who almost certainly will be taken as the No. 1 overall selection June 25 by the ..."
May 19
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Brian Grant, one of the most popular members of the franchise in the Heat's 21 seasons, has been diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson's disease, the 37-year-old retired center confirmed Monday. Grant's condition was first revealed in an ESPN.com article posted earlier in the day. The network is scheduled to air a report on Grant's ongoing battle with the progressive disease on its Sunday morning "Outside the Lines" program. Reaction to Grant's affliction was swift and heartfelt. "Brian Grant is one of the greatest team players and warriors that I have ever coached," Miami Heat President Pat Riley said in a statement. "I'm saddened by this news. "Brian will find a way to fight this because ..."
May 15
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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The economic downturn has reached the AmericanAirlines Arena offices of the Miami Heat, with the team this week announcing a round of layoffs that includes popular Community Affairs Liaison Wali Jones, among others. With NBA Commissioner David Stern having discussed the need for the league and its teams to modify how business is conducted in the current economic climate, the Heat became the latest team to shed salary, just days after the Sacramento Kings announced similar cuts. The Heat layoffs, which number about 20, a figure the team declined to confirm, came solely on the business side of the team's operation, which is headed by team President Eric Woolworth. "These challenging economic ..."
May 14
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Scoring champion Dwyane Wade joined MVP LeBron James on the All-NBA first team announced Wednesday. James was a unanimous selection after leading the Cavaliers to a franchise-record for wins and playoff sweeps of the Pistons and Hawks. Joining Wade and James on the first team are Kobe Bryant of the Lakers, Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavericks and Dwight Howard of the Magic. Wade made the first team for the first time. He earned second team honors in 2004-05 and 2005-06 and third team honors in 2006-07, making him the first Heat player to earn All-NBA honors four times. Wade is the fourth Heat player to receive first-team honors. Wade joins Tim Hardaway (1996-97), Alonzo Mourning (1998-99) and ..."