Sam Smith

MIAMI -

I'm traveling with the Chicago Bulls this week, which is not much fun. So I went over to the beach, where it's has dropped just under 80 degrees, there are a few clouds and the palm trees in the tropical breeze were swaying a little more than I usually like. That's the gratuitous shot for just about everyone in the country. But as I was cleaning the sand from between my toes, which is something you don't want to see, I was wondering why Dwyane Wade wasn't here doing the same thing.

Yes, he's here, getting ready again to play for the Damn Heat.

That would be my Damn Yankees reference, and how Pat Riley sold his soul for one more championship.

The guy who still has the Joe Hardy hair got that championship in 2006, but with a declining Shaquille O'Neal, few pieces remaining from that championship season and Wade slow to recover from his offseason surgery and various knick knacks, the Heat's season effectively is over.

They're last in the Eastern Conference, and last week lost the lottery game to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Game, set, match. The ball is no longer in their court.

So I ask myself, given I'm one of the few who likes to listen to me, what the heck is Wade doing out there?

He's the future of the franchise. He has three years remaining on his contract extension, and the only thing close to a core the Heat has. Beware that in three years, at age 28, some team, like his hometown Bulls, will swoop in and lure him away.

Everything the Heat does right now should be predicated on putting together a competitive core that would persuade Wade that this is where he wants to finish his career. He's a rare gem in the NBA's sometimes faltering crown.

The Heat has been letting on in recent weeks that Wade, who is starting to sit out some games, is hurt worse than they'd previously let on and he still has shoulder and knee problems in addition to several other minor issues. Remember, fall down seven get up eight? It takes a toll.

The thinking was the Heat was setting the stage to shut down Wade for the rest of the season, assure that high lottery position, as if that's any question already with Alonzo Mourning also done probably for his career. Why not? What are they playing for, anyway?

Wade, for his part, is a competitor. He says he wants to compete and it's laudable that he cares.

"To say shut it down right now is a joke," Wade told Florida media members this week. "We have obligations to our fans. We have obligations to ourselves and our teammates and everyone that puts a lot into us to go out there and perform. Unless you're out there hurting yourself even more — that's not good — but if you can play, then you play."

That's another reason why you don't play Wade. The NBA can't afford to lose an asset like him who really does care.

Though I must admit I am ambivalent on this.

I feel like Hillary Clinton. I think it's a good idea, but it's also good if it's decided he plays.

I go to the mountaintop on this one and reference Michael Jordan.

It was the 1985-86 season, Jordan's second, and he was injured early in the season and missed 64 games. The Bulls were on the way to 20-something wins, which would have meant that high lottery pick and Jordan could pick right up again the next season.

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But Jordan was having none of it. He didn't want to be with a franchise that didn't do everything it could to win every game. He insisted on returning. The team tried to talk him out of it, but he was a player. The Bulls initially limited his playing time on doctors' recommendations, which only made it worse. Eventually, Jordan went back to his familiar role and had that staggering 63-point playoff game even though the Bulls were swept in the first round by the Celtics — after making the playoffs with 30 wins. Yes, the East has been even worse than it is now.

Jordan saw it as growth and the Bulls did begin to take off from there, though they were still under .500 the next season and it was the additions of Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant the following season that began the real surge.

Though what if?

What if Jordan had sat out and the Bulls went into the lottery and maybe got their center, Brad Daugherty, then? What if they added someone else of talent, though that was the Drug Draft with several of the top picks soon in rehab. But there were choices. Maybe then they don't get Pippen a year later. Who knows?

Wade's case is perhaps a bit different, though the Bulls insisted at the time Jordan could do more damage to his injury. And then what would have happened to the NBA and the team. Jordan said that wasn't the case, and he was right, though the incident was the genesis of his feud with then general manager Jerry Krause.

Maybe you wait a week or two with Wade, though I hardly think the Heat is going anywhere. Shaquille O'Neal returned recently, had 24 points and 10 rebounds and the Heat were blown out by the Bulls and fell to 8-29. I'd probably sit him down now and maybe bring him back later in the season to get a taste of the game again before he plays for USA Basketball this summer, which is another issue.

The Heat's record is the least of their concerns.

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