Dwyane Wade is not the only Heat star who is receptive to offers from foreign basketball teams to play overseas should the NBA lockout drag into the 2011-2012 regular season.
Teammate Chris Bosh is also "open to considering overseas overtures," at least according to his agent, Henry Thomas.
Thomas told The Miami Herald last week that Bosh will consider offers, but did not necessarily say that the power forward would actually accept any of those offers.
Even so, it is becoming clear that the prospect of playing in a foreign basketball league is an enticing option to many of the NBA's biggest names.
In July Wade said of playing overseas during the lockout, "If there's an opportunity there, I'd consider it."
Besides Wade and Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and Kevin Durant have been reported to be open to playing overseas if the lockout drags on too long.
Last week FIBA, basketball's global governing body, said it would clear NBA players to play in any foreign league under its domain during the NBA lockout, so long as they return to their NBA teams when the lockout ends.
This could give the NBA players' union a shiny bargaining chip in lockout negotiations. Certainly team owners would hate to see their team centerpiece (or centerpieces, in the case of the Heat) expose themselves to the added injury risk. Indeed, the locked out players are less likely to get hurt while playing Xbox on their couch.
But a move overseas could backfire for individual players, specifically due to the injury risk. When announcing they would clear NBA players for overseas play during the lockout, FIBA warned NBA teams could void a player's contract if he injures himself playing in another league.
Even so, the prospect of making the lockout backfire for NBA owners could be too tantalizing for some stars to resist.
However, the third member of the Big Three, LeBron James, is not interested in playing overseas during an extended lockout.
In fact, he is one of the few marquee NBA stars whose interest has not been piqued by foreign basketball leagues.
