Dwyane Wade grew up watching the Knicks and Heat go head-to-head in the late 1990s.
Tonight, for the first time since Wade was drafted by the Heat in 2003, he will play in a game between the two teams that has the same level of hype and anticipation since Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning were posting up one another.
“Of course, being a fan of the game, you know the history of the game and the rivalry between the Miami Heat and Knicks, and that’s what you expect coming in,” Wade said after this morning’s shootaround at the Garden. “It wasn’t that when I came into the NBA … I think they were right in their downfall around that time.
“It’s great. It’s great for basketball … it’s great for this rivalry.”
After an initial rough start, the Heat come into tonight’s game flying high, winners of 10 straight games, with Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh finally starting to play like everyone expected from the beginning of the season.
Wade, who like James and Bosh was courted by the Knicks during free agency this summer, said he thought James could be bound for the Knicks when talk of the summer of 2010 first came up a couple of years ago.
“Maybe when I first heard it from everybody in New York thought they had him here, I was like, ‘Uh, OK, maybe,’” he said. “I know he likes the big stage, the big city … of course, if you’re a star in New York, you’re a worldwide star, but after a while it was a lot of possibilities.”
The Knicks may not have gotten Wade, James or Bosh in free agency, but the two free agents they did get, Amar’e Stoudemire and Raymond Felton, have been stellar.
Stoudemire has played at an MVP level so far this season, averaging 26.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, and has scored at least 30 points in nine consecutive games. After a slow start, Felton is averaging 18.7 points, 8.9 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
Though the Knicks’ 16-10 start may have surprised some people, Wade isn’t one of them.
“When you get a player like Amar’e Stoudemire, who can do so many different things with the ball on the court and then you add pieces around that may not have been the top names in the free agency pool, but are very good basketball players, and then you put them in this arena and put them in a system with a coach like Mike D’Antoni, where they’re free and their minds are free, you see different ballplayers,” Wade said. “So, (I’m not surprised) at all.”
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Another Knicks target in the offseason who signed with Miami, sharpshooter Mike Miller, made his first road trip of the season with the Heat after injuring his thumb on his right (shooting) hand before the season began.
Miller, who was wearing a protective sheath on his right hand while shooting jumpers during the shootaround, said he could be play tonight. However, it’s more likely that he will return against the Lakers on Christmas Day, the game he’s targeted since the injury.