I Pledge My Allegiance

     With Free Agency 2010 approaching with each passing minute, and my Miami Heat mired in mediocrity, I can’t help but ask something that no Miami fan wants to admit to themselves.  Could Dwyane Wade actually leave the Heat?(Shudder)  Beyond that, I’m wondering what happens in the event of D-Wade’s departure.  Not to the Heat, but to me. 

     I’m a Miami Heat fan but and a Wade fan.  I’ve been a Heat fan since 2003, Wade’s rookie season.  Like Mya said in Best of Me “Should I stay?  Should I go? I don’t know.”  If the Heat and Wade divorce, then I’d be a child of that marriage forced to choose which parent to stay with.  In leaving, Wade would strip Miami of its identity.  I don’t care what anyone says, since hitting that game winning shot over Baron Davis in Game 1 of the 2004 first round playoff series against the Hornets, the Heat has been Wade’s team.  Even during the Shaq years, Wade never relinquished his ownership.  Wade brought the Heat our only championship in heroic and dominating fashion.  Time and time again Wade has taken over in games and closed them out while making the declaration that “This Is My House.”  So what happens when the owner decides to sell and move on?

     Does it make me less of a fan if I make that move along with Wade?  Within reason of course.  I draw the line with the Lakers.  I don’t care if Wade moves to LA and averages a triple double while winning six championship rings, I cannot and will not root for the Los Angeles Lakers.  Apart from the Lakers, pretty much any other team is fair game.  Actually almost any team, while it is the Lakers that I despise, I have aversions towards the Bulls, and I wouldn’t be too happy about a Cleveland marriage(no way that happens though, thank God for small miracles). 

     Some might say that I was never truly a Heat fan if Wade’s departure causes me to jump ship.  I say that’s bull****, I stuck with the Heat through a 15-67 season and the pain I feel after every Heat loss is plenty real.  By no means am I a front runner, but if I change teams I would have to deal with the questions and the accusations.  Plus I’m getting a little too old to start a new relationship. 

     Someone needs to set the protocols and parameters by which one can change teams.  I propose that the NBA create a Diehard Fan Department(DFD).  One of the DFD’s tasks would be to handle change of team claims.  The DFD would receive my claim, hear my reasons, and decide on where my allegiance should go.  Alas the DFD had yet to be formed, leaving me, if the situation arises, to handle this matter on my own.

     Peradventure a divorce does occur, do I root for Wade most of the time and the Heat every other weekend?  That’s the predicament I would find myself in the event of a divorce.  Do I pledge my allegiance to Dwyane Wade, in my mind the embodiment of all that is the Heat, or a Miami team that would then be without an identity?  I really don’t want to choose.  Actually there is always option C.  Go THUNDER!!!

Tega