Dwyane Wade Is Reportedly Signing With The Bulls

According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski, Dwyane Wade will change teams for the first time in his career, and leave the Miami Heat for the Chicago Bulls. Wade, a Chicago native, had played with the Heat since his rookie year in 2003 and won three championships with them. Wade was one of only six active players who had spent an entire career of 13 seasons or more with one team.

To clear room for Dwyane Wade, the Bulls will have to trade Jose Calderon and Mike Dunleavy. Wade was reportedly asking teams for $50 million over two years, and most reports had the Heat coming up about $10 million or one year short. It appeared that Wade might have simply been using the Bulls, Bucks, and Nuggets as leverage against the Heat, but it looks like Micky Arison really did not want to pay up for a player who had sacrificed money his entire career for him.

Update (9:52 p.m.): Woj reports that the Heat and Bulls gave Wade similar offers, yet he chose Chicago anyway:

After meeting with Miami owner Micky Arison on Wednesday in New York, the Heat were unwilling to add a third year to their contract offer to Wade, league sources said. The offer was comparable to Chicago’s, but Wade ultimately decided to leave the franchise with which he had become synonymous during a run for three championships.

Update (11:19 p.m.): Wade wrote a letter to Miami, and the AP has it.