Wade battled a left knee injury throughout his quest to a second NBA title, but now his ailing knee may cause him to miss out on a chance to join Team USA in the London Games this Summer.
Wade has his knee drained during the Pacers series and continued to tough it out as the Heat advanced. Now he looks like he may face surgery, pending an MRI, to fix the problem. This is the same knee Wade had surgery on in May 2007.
”I’ve got to make a decision on what my knee needs and what’s best, because my career and finishing my career strong is what’s important to me,” Wade said. ”And I know, yeah, the Olympics are coming up. It’s something I really want to do. But at the same time, if I have to make a big decision, if something has to happen surgery-wise, that will have to be a step I have to take. My loyalty and my commitment to Miami Heat basketball is the No. 1 thing.”
Training camp for the USA Men’s Olympic Basketball Team should start near the beginning of July and the official games will start July 27. Wade has a short window to make a decision on what he’ll do.
”From my small conversations with the doctor at that time, I think some kind of cleanup process might have to go on,” Wade said. ”And when that happens, from our previous experiences, it takes a while to recover. So I want to make sure that I want to recover strong and not like I did the last knee surgery that I had.”
At this point Wade will have to weight his options and choose whether he’d like to play in the Olympics and then head almost directly into next season, or if he’ll have a knee procedure and rest up. I’d look for Wade to forgo the 2012 London Games in favor of the 2012-13 NBA season, when the Miami Heat will begin their title defense.
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June 25, 2012
