Wade Should Think Long-Term, Have Surgery

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Dwyane Wade wants a second opinion?

I thought he'd never ask.

OK, maybe he meant he wants a second medical opinion on his separated left shoulder before choosing a course of action. And I'm no doctor (though I occasionally play one in the newspaper).

But if a young man in the throes of indecision nearly a week after his injury might entertain an opinion that doesn't require any degree except a degree of presumptuousness, then here it is:

Forget what's left of this living nightmare of a season.

Wade should do what is best for himself, long-term, because at 25 he is just getting started here, and his future and the Heat's are inseparable. They are the same.

With any luck, D-Wade will be drilling and thrilling long after Shaquille O'Neal has retired to a TV studio and Pat Riley is done coaching. This franchise has its trophy. Now it must make sure the player who gives it a chance to win more is protected.

Forget the focus on this godforsaken season that has followed last summer's NBA championship parade the way the world's worst hangover follows the best party.

Forget what this team maybe/might/could do in April and May if Wade returned.

This decision should not be about salvaging a Heat season that, if it were a flight, would have seen the oxygen masks drop at least three times by now while harrowed passengers groaned and reached for vomit bags. The decision should be about making sure Wade's shoulder is 100 percent.

That would seem to suggest surgery now, then recovery time heavy on care and caution. Meaning Wade's season is done, and no risk-taking this summer with Olympic qualifying, either. Meaning we'll see you in October.

DON'T RUSH

To instead rest and rehab for six weeks means he could return for the playoffs. But the risk is Wade's competitiveness, a force perhaps more powerful than his rational mind. His internal magnet would be drawing him back, maybe too soon.

''I told him he has to be patient, [not] rush it,'' Wade's buddy, LeBron James, told reporters here Sunday. ``I had a friend in high school that had the same injury, and he tried to rush it and it kept popping back out.''

Could Wade muster sufficient patience when he's close but not quite ready? When his team is struggling, maybe fighting for that last playoff spot? Why chance getting reinjured and it becoming something that persists or turns chronic?

(Quick aside: Riley and team visit the White House today. Could there be two more beleaguered leaders in one room than George W. Bush and Riley? The way Heat luck has been running this season, the team will be fortunate to escape the Rose Garden without Udonis Haslem being sent to Iraq.)</div>

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If he cares at all about his future, he'll get the surgery. If he doesn't, he risks the chances of injuring the shoulder even more and completely trashing the shoulder structure. Also, with the injury, his game won't be the same. He won't drive and teams, as sick as it sounds, will be gunning to take it to him hard if he does infact drive to the hoop.