Dwyane Wade sees Heat revival as he roots on his Jazz, ‘it’s about business’

As former Miami Heat icon Dwyane Wade takes his newfound sideline role as Utah Jazz part owner, it’s as if he is quoting from The Godfather, if not from Pat Riley, himself.

“It’s about business,” Wade said in a GQ profile about moving on from his Heat career to an ownership stake with the top-seeded team in the NBA playoffs.

For Wade, it is a branding change that has created somewhat of a double-take, as he advises Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell from his courtside seat, even when professing ongoing pride for the team he helped lead to three NBA championships.

“One thing I did for Miami in my 14-and-a-half-year career is give them all I had, Wade said in the GQ piece that came out this week. “They continue to embrace me and my family even though we are not living in that zip code. The love is always there for me, and I think it’s always gonna be there from the fans. We experienced something real together and it’s gonna last all of us a lifetime. I get it, man.

“But I’m not just one person to stay in one place. I’m a butterfly, man. And I gotta fly. I gotta move. I gotta go. So, this is just the next step in my journey. But, all love to Miami. All love.”

In the wake of the Heat’s first-round elimination, Riley said he appreciates Wade finding his way during this next NBA chapter.

“Whatever Dwyane decides to do with the rest of his life in the NBA or whatever he does in Los Angeles, in other investment or personality situations, I’m happy as hell,” Riley said during a streaming event on YouTube hosted by media personality Dan Le Batard. “He was offered the opportunity to be part-owner in a franchise and congrats to him.”

While the Jazz are up and the Heat are down, Wade said he expects renewed success from Riley, Heat owner Micky Arison and the franchise where he stands as the all-time leading scorer.

“The Heat are always going to do what they’ve always done,” Wade said on an appearance on ESPN’s The Jump. “They’re always planning steps ahead to try to look at the future and see how they can compete for championships. Miami is all about championships. You can take the years that you don’t win championships and say, ‘Man, we had a great season.’ But that isn’t a year that Pat Riley and that organization really want to remember. They want to remember the ones that end in parades.

“So they’re going to do everything possible to do that, as long as Pat Riley and the Arison family is at the helm of that organization, they’re always going to go all in. They’re going to pull those chips in when it’s right. They’re not going to do it when it ain’t right. When it’s right, they’re going put all the chips in.”

Should the Jazz advance from their second-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers, it would put Wade in the conference finals for the first time since he helped lead the Heat to the 2014 NBA Finals. His deepest Heat run since then was the Eastern Conference semifinals in 2016. A season after he retired, the Heat advanced to last season’s NBA Finals.

Still unclear is whether an ownership stake was — or would — have been offered to Wade with the Heat. But that, Wade said in the GQ piece, is moot. He cited Michael Jordan going from an iconic Chicago Bulls career to ownership of the Charlotte Hornets, Grant Hill from Detroit Pistons playing fame to an ownership stake with the Atlanta Hawks, and Shaquille O’Neal establishing himself as a champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and Heat and then taking an ownership piece of the Sacramento Kings.

“Once you retire and you aren’t a player anymore,” Wade said. “It’s about business. And you have to put yourself in a situation for the best business opportunity for you and your family. And Utah was that for me.”