Dwyane Wade spent much of his rookie season picking Lamar Odom's brain on all aspects of the NBA game, everything from playing tips to travel advice.
He hopes those chats start again soon.
The Miami Heat, who traded Odom to the Los Angeles Lakers five years ago in the trade that brought Shaquille O'Neal to South Florida, have made the free agent forward an offer to return and help Wade once again. The team has not revealed terms of the offer, although it's believed to be a five-year package that could be worth around $35 million.
"I want Lamar to do what's best for him and his family because we love him as family, but on the other hand, we want him back home, to come home," Wade said Friday in a telephone interview. "His house is still there. It'd be exciting to see what happens."
Odom averaged 17.1 points — the second-highest average of his career — in 80 games with the Heat during the 2003-04 season. He's spent the past five years with the Lakers, who pulled their contract offer to Odom earlier this week, a move that doesn't necessarily mean the two sides won't resume talking. Odom, 29, was a significant contributor to the Lakers' championship run this year.
The Heat went 42-40 that season with Odom, winning 17 of their final 21 regular-season games and earning the No. 4 spot in the Eastern Conference. That summer, Miami traded Caron Butler, Brian Grant and Odom to the Lakers for O'Neal, who helped Wade and the Heat win a championship two years later.
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Wade, who has asked the Heat to make some roster upgrades with hopes of getting back to the championship level, said he doesn't need to call Odom to lobby for his return.
"Lamar already knows how I feel," Wade said. "I really don't know how to feel. He's really taken time to deal with it, sit back. It's a very important decision in his life. It could be about where he ends his career."
The Heat have also been linked to a potential trade involving Utah forward Carlos Boozer, another close friend of Wade and his teammate from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Friday that Miami "has not entered talks ... but is monitoring" the Boozer situation.
Over his 10-year career, the versatile 6-foot-10 Odom has averaged 15.1 points and 8.8 rebounds.
"Lamar and I always had a great relationship," Wade said. "He's always been the guy, one of the guys, that I thought really helped me as a young player."
