Dwyane Wade Trade News 2017: Basketball Star Signs One-Year Deal With Cleveland Cavaliers
Dwyane Wade is heading to Cleveland to join LeBron James, confirming earlier rumors of a contract buyout that will free him from the Chicago Bulls. The 2006 Most Valuable Player has signed a one-year contract worth $2.3 million with the Cavaliers and has cleared the required waivers.
By Wednesday, Sep. 27, Wade has joined the Cavaliers' scheduled practice for that evening, according to ESPN. The three-time NBA champion has cleared all the waivers needed for his contract buyout from the Chicago Bulls by 5 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Sep. 28, and has put his signature on his contract with Cleveland, as also announced on Twitter by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Before the deal could push through, however, there was the matter of his ongoing $23.8 million contract with the Bulls. The matter was settled when the 35-year-old veteran agreed to return $8 million in a buyout agreement with the Chicago front office, according to sources.
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About his former team, Wade was nothing but gracious in his departure. While playing with the Bulls has always been his dream, as he said in his statement, "the team is now heading in a different direction, which has made me reevaluate where I need to be in this phase of my career."
LeBron James is ecstatic over the deal. "Come on, man, this is like one of my best friends," James said. He went on to compare the new NBA season to the first day of school and walking into a classroom only to find his best friend in the same class.
"You're like, 'Oh, yeah, this is going to be fun. It's going to be a good class.' That's the type of feeling I got," the Cavalier's top player said.
The video below shows his new teammate LeBron James reacting to the news, happy that Wade is coming over to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Wade, however, is already 35 and will have to work hard to maintain the 18.3 points per game production he gave to the Chicago Bulls last season.
