South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Waiters goes West
Former Heat player tries to get new lease on his hoops life with Lakers
There have been two categories of compelling players over the Miami
Heat’s 32 seasons.
With Dwyane Wade,
LeBron James, Shaquille
O’Neal, Chris Bosh and
Alonzo Mourning, their success defines their stories to share during ample Springfield reunions.
But there also has been a second subset, those in many ways equally as fascinating from a skills standpoint but also diametrically disappointing.
That group includes the likes of Willie Burton, Harold Miner, Michael Beasley and Dion Waiters, players immensely talented but also flawed to the degree of never quite finding their way.
For two, the “bubble” setting at Disney World was to provide another chance, albeit in different colors. But then Beasley tested positive for COVID-19. Ultimately, his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets never got started, just as three tenures with the Heat got sidetracked for Pat Riley’s 2008 No. 2 pick.
Then there is Waiters, who already is on his third team of the season, only now about to see his first action with the Los Angeles Lakers.
For all the wild rides available elsewhere on the Disney grounds, none
arguably is as dizzying, harrowing, careening as Waiters’ roller coaster through the 2019-20 NBA: suspended by the Heat for the season opener for pouting; suspended again by the Heat, this time for 10 games, after ingesting gummies of a non-fructose variety; and then another Heat suspension, for six games, with attitude still at issue; finally, traded Feb. 9 to the Memphis Grizzles, then waived by the Grizzles three days later.
And now on to the Lakers, his Mad Tea Party to continue at his own Disney Fantasyland, one that well could have him hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy in October if the NBA’s basketball in a bubble can run to its completion amid the new coronavirus pandemic.
With Avery Bradley opting out of the NBA’s restart and Rajon Rondo sidelined by a thumb fracture, the opening game of the resumption sets up as a high-stakes debut for Waiters, based on the Lakers’ ongoing goals with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“I’ve been here before,” Waiters said by video conference from Disney. “I’ve been in this position plenty of times. I’m ready to keep working, continuing to get familiar with the sets and things like that.
“It’s still basketball. I’ve been doing that my whole life, so it’s just being ready. If my number is called, then [I’ll] just try to impact the game.”
Waiters had been poised for his Lakers debut in mid-March. Instead, the league shut down March 11. That again left Waiters on his own, which, from a conditioning standpoint, never worked out particularly well over his three-plus seasons with the Heat.
Waiters said he spent the time off “trying to be creative.” Now the Lakers will have to get creative.
Part of that resourcefulness could be choosing between Waiters and J.R. Smith. Recall, James’ Cleveland Cavaliers dealt Waiters to the Oklahoma City Thunder in January 2015 in the trade that landed Smith from the New York Knicks.
“We’re here now,” Waiters said. “So we have one goal in mind, and that’s to win. All the other stuff that happened in the past, I don’t really remember.”
Waiters seemingly arrived to this latest stop with the same what-meworry approach that he embraced even during his darkest Heat days. That included Philly Cheese referring to himself as Bubble Cheese as he entered the NBA’s closed campus.
“You can call me whatever,” he said with a smile.
So here Waiters is, two teams and five months removed from the Heat, having already fully cashed out on the fouryear, $52 million contract he received from Riley in the 2017 offseason, one that still had another season to run.
Landing again on his feet. With legitimate championship visions.
And the opportunity, should he choose, to go shirtless like Smith did after his 2016 championship with the Cavaliers.
“Just enjoying it,” Waiters said. “Enjoying the moment.”