MIAMI -- This can't be the way Dwyane Wade goes out, in a battle of wills with Rajon Rondo, on a team where he has been unable to stake a definitive claim as a leader, on a roster whose upside is a first-round sweep at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And it never should have been this way, had Wade and Pat Riley taken a deep breath, swallowed hard and given last July's free-agency decision another 48 or 72 hours to marinate.
Because now there is almost too much to undo to expeditiously put things in their proper place, namely Wade back in place with the Miami Heat, instead of part of the clown college that has become the Chicago Bulls.
For Wade to work his way back to South Florida, it would require walking back that pledge of returning to his hometown of Chicago as an act of civic renewal. And for Riley to make it work once and again, it would mean having to conjure a contract at an even more tenuous salary-cap juncture for the Heat.
Recall that when Riley attempted to justify the Heat's offer to Wade last summer, he said, "You don't have to give players 20, 20, 20, you can give 'em 20, 8, 37, 25. What difference does it make?"
Riley's point was that the two-year, $47 million contract Wade took from the Bulls could have been structured by the Heat to still provide Wade with a similar long-term payoff, while also protecting the Heat's salary-cap position for the 2017-18 offseason.
Because 2017-18 has to be the Heat's offseason of decision.
First, that is when the Heat are expected to be able to re-coup Chris Bosh's $25.3 million in cap space. However, there remains the chance that if the money is not spent immediately it could be rescinded should Bosh make an unexpected return to the NBA with another team. In other words, there is no guarantee such space would be available going forward.
Then there is the issue of Tyler Johnson's contract that counts only $5.9 million against the cap this summer, but then $19 million against the cap in the 2018 offseason.
Those are the two reasons why holding Wade against the cap at the $23.8 million 2017-18 option he holds for the Bulls would have been prohibitive for the Heat, but why Riley could have utilized Wade's Bird Rights to make things right in the 2018 offseason, had Wade stayed.
Now those Bird Rights are gone. And if Wade opts out of that $23.8 million from the Bulls this summer in the wake of these recent contretemps, it would be incomprehensible for Riley to walk back from his previous cap concerns.
Should Wade, however, be willing to take that $23.8 million over two seasons from the Heat, that might be another story (because for as ugly as it initially stood between Riley and Wade, it never, ever got as contentious as the dumpster fire this past week in Chicago).
What Wade lacks in Chicago is the locker-room consigliere that he had in Miami in Udonis Haslem. The hunch here is that in the wake of his Thursday Instagram post that Rondo would have awoken next to a severed horse head had Haslem still been alongside Wade as a teammate.
Dwyane Wade in Chicago has yet to turn into anything as sad as Patrick Ewing in Seattle and Orlando. But this past week was not a good look.
And still, he's trying.
"When you're a leader," Wade said of this new incarnation, "certain things you do and say aren't always going to be the popular thing in the locker room. You have to understand this. That's why some guys don't want to be leaders. Some guys want to be in the middle of the pack so they can be liked. As a leader, sometimes you can't be liked. It's the harsh truth and harsh reality."
The truth and reality would have been different in Miami and still can. Leadership comes out of respect. Respect for Dwyane Wade resides at 601 Biscayne. Always has. Always will. And can again.
Sports on 01/30/2017