Jerry Zgoda's Sunday Insider: Two-star conversation

Jed Jacobsohn, Getty Images

At the Beijing Olympics, LeBron James (center) and Dwyane Wade (right) led the U.S. to the gold.

Could talks between LeBron James and Dwyane Wade lead the two superstars to join forces this summer?

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: November 14, 2009 - 11:36 PM

LeBron James sure made some noise last week for a guy who finally vowed to quit talking about his free-agent options next summer.

He went into Miami with his Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night and beat the Heat with a 34-point performance while Michael Jordan looked on. Afterward, he said he plans to switch his jersey number from 23 to 6 next season and will urge others who wear that number -- Marcus Camby, Jason Richardson, Kevin Martin and Louis Williams among them -- to do the same to acknowledge all Jordan has done for them.

"He can't get the logo," James said afterward, referring to the NBA logo that bears Jerry West's silhouette. "And if he can't, something has to be done. If I'm not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it."

The question, of course, is where will he call home when he first wears that No. 6 he wore for the U.S. Olympic team?

Cleveland is the answer most obvious.

New York City is the one most trendy.

Miami just could be the right one.

The Heat has cleared its salary-cap books for the much-awaited summer of 2010. Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers and Daequan Cook are the only likely commitments -- at less than $8 million total -- if Dwyane Wade exercises his right to become a free agent.

That leaves millions and millions and millions for Wade to re-sign and convince one -- or more -- of his Olympic teammates to relocate to South Beach with the promise of wonderful weather and multiple NBA championships.

"D-Wade and I have talked about it," James said before he decided in Orlando on Wednesday to stop answering free-agency questions. "That may have come up in conversation."

Make that conversations, according to Wade. He told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that he, James, Toronto's Chris Bosh and Atlanta's Joe Johnson have discussed the possibilities "over the course of years" playing together on Olympic and world championship teams. All four players are expected to be unrestricted free agents next summer.

"We've all had the conversation of the possibility, 'We can play together one day,'" said Wade, who might have further intrigued James with a magnificent dunk that posterized Anderson Varejao on Thursday. "Especially when [Kevin] Garnett and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce all got together. We were like, 'Wow, it can happen.' You never know. When the summer comes, we'll all sit down over a nice meal and we'll know what city it'll be and see what everybody's deciding.

"I'd love for everybody to want to focus their way down here, to this beautiful city of Miami. That would make my job a lot easier."

Wade called the chance of him and James playing together a "long shot" but also said they each decided to sign the same contract at the same time to give themselves the chance to "control our own destiny."

"If we want to, we could team up," he said. "No question about it, it's a long shot. He's in Cleveland ... where he has the opportunity to compete for a championship now. And I'm in Miami, where I've won a championship and this is where I love to be. So it's not like we're both looking over our shoulders, saying, 'I want to get out of here.'

"It's a long shot, but, at the end of the day, it's a shot."

Recent Timberwolves stories

MRI confirms ankle sprain for Hornets' Paul, but no timetable for return - November 14, 2009

MRI confirms ankle sprain for Hornets' Paul, but no timetable for return - Further tests on Chris Paul's ankle show nothing beyond a sprain, but there is no timetable for the star point guard's return to the New Orleans Hornets. More

In tale of two rookies, Flynn scrounges as Jennings soars - November 14, 2009

In tale of two rookies, Flynn scrounges as Jennings soars - Brandon Jennings' historic performance for the Bucks caught a lot of people's attention, including Jonny Flynn's. More