<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <div class="txt-mod"> <h3>Trade Welcomed</h3> <div class="txt-even">Antoine Walker | Timberwolves</div> Antoine Walker said he had reached a breaking point with Heat coach Pat Riley over conditioning demands during his final days with the team and welcomed the Oct. 24 trade, in which Walker, Michael Doleac, Wayne Simien and a first-round draft pick were dealt for Ricky Davis and Mark Blount. ''It was better for me to leave,'' Walker said before Monday's game. ``Riles kept my name in the papers for something negative, and it was a back-and-forth thing over body-fat. I was getting tired of that.'' -- Miami Herald</p> </p> [*]Walker, averaging 10.4 points in a reserve role, didn't say he was a scapegoat in Miami but seemed to indicate that might have been the case. "Obviously the way it started off I wasn't the problem," he said. "(They' re) in the same situation. Regardless of whether I'm here or not it's the same situation. It hasn't improved." -- Palm Beach Post</p> </p> [*]He said he has kept in touch with a few former teammates, but also noted many have departed. "The one reason why we won a championship, you had everybody on the same page," he said. "I'm not for sure if everybody's on the same page now." -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel</p> </p> [*]"Nah," he said when asked if he left with bad feelings. "We won a championship. It was better for me to leave, getting my name in the paper for something negative, a back-and-forth thing about body fat. I was getting tired of that. It was best that I move on. I had a great two years here." Walker said he plans to keep his house in Miami.</p> "This is one of my homes, where I'm always going to live the rest of my life," he said. "So I feel good about coming back here. I ain't going nowhere. This is home." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune</div></p> </div>
