http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=13212Wade Wants Iverson?
Allen Iverson may be a far cry from the player he was when he led the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals, but there are those who believe he can still contribute to a team that's looking to make it to the NBA's big dance. Count Miami HEAT star Dwyane Wade among them, as he told 790 AM The Ticket in Miami recently. "I mean with A.I. you look at a guy who, of course is one of the best players to ever put on an NBA jersey," said Wade, who has told HEAT management he will sign a contract extension if he feels the team has a shot at a title. "(Iverson's) a guy who can still score in the right offense, in the right flow. So, you know you can never turn your nose up to a Hall of Fame guy like Allen Iverson."
So far, despite an earnest desire to improve the roster, the HEAT have been left out of the talks with most of the significant free agents. Ben Gordon, Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza and Charlie Villanueva are all spoken for, and it seems Lamar Odom, David Lee, Paul Millsap and Shawn Marion won't be on the market much longer. Even as those free agents commit to other teams, however, Wade says he's confident HEAT President Pat Riley will get something done. "Well, at this moment there's a lot of teams that got better but they got better real fast. But, one thing I've came to realize is that Miami can never count out Pat Riley, you never know what he can cook up in the lab so, we're going to be patient and I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to let him do his job and I'm going to do my job and my job is to come out next year and perform and lead my teammates, whoever's on my team to as good of a season that we could have."
The HEAT have also been on the outside looking in with some of the bigger names available via trade, with Shaquille O'Neal heading to Cleveland, Vince Carter heading to Orlando, and Richard Jefferson heading to San Antonio. The HEAT haven't even been rumored in trade talks as of yet, something Wade says he expects to change in the near future. "Well, there is a lot going on and there are a lot of teams that are shaking a lot of things up, and these are teams that feel that they need to do it now and some teams feel that they need to win championships now, and you have to respect what they're doing. Myself and Pat Riley, we had that back and forth that one time but it really wasn't going back and forth, he just said what he wanted and I said what I wanted. And, you can respect that from both sides; I want to win, and he wants to win. And, he wants me to be here to win, but we have some really talented players as well of the players that we have here to win. We'll eventually get to it and I look forward to getting to that. I don't know, I hear a lot of people who like it here but it hasn't happened yet, so hopefully the right person comes along and can help this franchise out, with me." The prospect of playing with Dwyane Wade and one of the better casts of young talent in the league will certainly be appealing to a lot of players, but as they commit one-by-one to other teams you can't help but wonder if the clock is ticking on Wade's own career in Miami. The HEAT need to make a significant move . . .and soon.
