Heat bid to get Odom back
Dwyane Wade spent much of his rookie season picking Lamar Odom’s brain on all aspects of the NBA game, everything from playing tips to travel advice.
He hopes those chats start up again, soon.
The Miami Heat, who traded Odom to the Los Angeles Lakers five years ago in the trade that brought Shaquille O’Neal to South Florida, have made the free agent forward an offer to return and help Wade once again. The team has not revealed terms of the offer, although it’s believed to be a five-year package that could be worth around $35 million.
“I want Lamar to do what’s best for him and his family because we love him as family, but on the other hand, we want him back home, to come home,” Wade said Friday in a telephone interview.
Odom averaged 17.1 points in 80 games with the Heat during the 2003-04 season. He’s spent the past five years with the Lakers, who pulled their contract offer to Odom earlier this week, a move that doesn’t necessarily mean the two sides won’t resume talking. Odom, 29, was a significant contributor to the Lakers’ championship run this year.
The Heat went 42-40 that season with Odom, winning 17 of their final 21 regular-season games and earning the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference. That summer, Miami traded Caron Butler, Brian Grant and Odom to the Lakers for O’Neal, who helped Wade and the Heat win a championship two years later.
The Heat also have been linked to a potential trade involving Utah forward Carlos Boozer, another close friend of Wade and his teammate from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.