Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade refutes reports that he already has agreed to visit New York Knicks Miami caught up in free-agent frenzy, the chase for LeBron James Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, LeBron James on same team: Why not? Chris Bosh says Miami Heat is in 'top contention' to land him
I have not experienced becoming instantly mega-rich by hitting the lottery, but I imagine if that happened I'd be afraid to celebrate. I wouldn't believe it. I'd call the state to double-check the numbers I thought I'd heard. I would stare at those numbers on my ticket until the ticket caught fire in my trembling hands or I suddenly sat bolt-upright in bed, awake from my dream.
How do you react when too-good-to-be-true is too-great-amazing-astounding-and-flabbergasting-to-be-true?
That's how Miami Heat fans must feel right now, on the edge of NBA free agency that starts at midnight Wednesday.
A week ago most fans would have been thrilled if the team came out of this able to re-sign Dwyane Wade and then add top-targeted free agent Chris Bosh.
Now fans are being told they get that and something else, too:
LeBron James, the best basketball player on the planet.
It is electrifying, because it might actually be true.
It is terrifying, because what if the dog snatches the lottery ticket and chews it to unidentifiable pulp?
Stephen A. Smith, the former ESPN yakker now of Fox Sports radio, reported Monday that James and Bosh will join Wade in Miami. Not maybe or could, but as a matter of fact. Smith stood behind his bold claim on 790 The Ticket Monday afternoon.
I have enjoyed poking fun at Smith over the years for his bombastic, gesturing, angry persona. Credit where it's due, though. The man knows the NBA.
``I hope to God I'm absolutely right,'' he said.
So do we, Stephen A. Not for your sake. For ours.
If he's right the Heat would instantly be annual title contenders for years to come, a would-be dynasty, the most exciting team, the biggest story in sports. (Two-peat, three-peat, four-peat a dollar. All for a dynasty, stand up and holler!)
If he's right, the Heat would be bigger down here than the Dolphins. That has never happened. It threatened to around 2006 and '07, when the Heat's championship was followed by the Dolphins going 1-15, but the natural order was soon restored.
What we are talking about would be unprecedented here. Pairing James and Bosh with Wade would be bigger than the Dolphins drafting Dan Marino, because that didn't come with the guarantee this would. The Heat trading for Shaquille O'Neal? Not close.
It all seems to make sense, too. Miami offers Wade, South Beach, no state income tax, great ownership, Pat Riley. James and Wade are good friends, legit. Bosh loves to party here and is rumored to be house-hunting in Miami. So many pieces dovetailing.
And yet the unavoidable caution is that Mr. Smith could be wrong. Or right yet proven wrong because LeBron simply had a seismic, NBA-altering change of heart.
You know that teams are violating the official start of free agency by getting out feelers and laying groundwork, and yet you hesitate to imagine players' minds are made up before teams' official visits and presentations have even begun.
You also keep wondering if there are enough shots in a game to keep James, Wade and their egos happy -- if each wouldn't prefer to be The Man in his city without wondering if the other guy is.
You wonder, too, if Miami would be able to work the sign-and-trade with Toronto (likely involving Michael Beasley) that it might take to acquire Bosh.
You want to believe the report. That James-Wade-Bosh will become a reality. But should you?
I was reminded Monday of a favorite song from the 1980s by the rock group Dire Straits, the song describing people ranting from soapboxes in a public park. ``Two men say they're Jesus,'' goes the lyric, ``one of them must be wrong.''
The line bobbed into the mind as dueling reports had James headed to Miami or Chicago.
Two men say they know where the King is bound; one of them must be wrong. Or, as likely, both of them have sources proffering educated guesses -- that can be gossip dressed in a shiny suit -- based on information fluid and subject to change.
The reputable New York Times reported a source indicating that James and Bosh ending up in tandem with the Chicago Bulls was all but a ``done deal.'' Then Smith said the same but with South Beach the destination.
An alternate reality is that both could be trumped if James is overcome by guilt feelings and persuades himself to re-up with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers. The big-market Knicks think themselves in play. The Nets are trotting out part-owner Jay-Z to help lure James.
All of this will play out over the next week or so. Free agents may not sign with a new team until July 8 but can state their intentions beginning at midnight Wednesday.
Meantime, we embrace that magical, porcelain possibility of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all at once.
We are holding what we have been told to believe is the winning lottery ticket, but now we must agonize to wait for the confirmation.
