Brand Wade: Heat guard's business side keeps growing

Basketball Betting Lines

02/14/2007 -

MIAMI (AP) - Dwyane Wade will leave the NBA's All-Star festivities and enter a Las Vegas hotel Friday to meet some of his biggest fans.

Converse will be there. So will T-Mobile, Gatorade, Lincoln, Topps, Staples, Marquis Jet and more companies that he's aligned with - along with others that may want to soon start working with the Miami Heat's superstar guard and budding sports business giant.

It's called the Brand Wade Summit, the latest example of how Wade's drawing power isn't limited to the basketball court. Over 90 minutes, he'll thank those he's already working with and, perhaps more importantly, hear ideas on what might come next.

``You have a roomful of all my partners - all the people that care about Dwyane Wade and the Wade name and brand - together to talk and chat and see what direction they want to go in,'' Wade said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``I think it's going to be great. I'm excited about it. It's one thing I'm really excited about.''

And it's just one part of what Wade - last season's NBA finals MVP for leading the Heat to their first championship - calls an ``insanely'' busy All-Star break.

``It's all still crazy to me,'' Wade said. ``It's really not about the contracts and making money and doing commercials. It's about us all being serious about the direction we're all going, and doing the right things and making the right choices. That's what's important.''

Once he gets to Las Vegas on Thursday, there'll be multiple events with sponsors every day, multiple parties every night, league-mandated media sessions, and, oh, the little matters of defending his title in the NBA Skills Challenge on Saturday night and playing in the All-Star game Sunday.

``It's a challenge,'' said Henry Thomas, Wade's agent. ``I've been at this for 18 years now and I've had some star clients. But I haven't had anything like this. Any agent in the business would love to have the opportunity to represent a player who's become what Dwyane's become. Has all this come faster than we expected? Of course.''

The weeklong Wade business blitz started Monday, when T-Mobile unveiled its new ``D-Wade Edition'' Sidekick, which Wade helped design. To celebrate the launch, T-Mobile will have a ``wallscape'' in Las Vegas this weekend, a 56,250-square-foot image of Wade holding the wireless device on the side of the Mandalay Bay.

In Las Vegas on Thursday, he'll unveil his new line of Converse athletic apparel, a collection of T-shirts, shorts, fleeces, warm-ups, shooting shirts and more that will be in stores early next month. He'll also wear a new style of his signature Converse shoes - the Wade 2.0 - in the All-Star game.

It's the first time Converse has designed an apparel line around an athlete.

``I wanted mine to be different,'' Wade said. ``I wanted to make sure everything is great quality. I didn't want something that someone will wash one time and it'll be done. I want it to be perfect.''

Also Thursday, Staples will announce a $57,500 program to improve 14 parks in South Florida, with the winning park getting $25,000 and five winning online voters a chance to meet Wade.

On Friday, it's the Brand Wade Summit, followed that night by the release of his first solo commercial for Gatorade, a spot called ``Good Wade, Bad Wade'' that was filmed last fall in Miami and has Wade dribbling upcourt, trying to decide whether to shoot over a defender or dunk over someone. (It's easy to guess which decision wins.)

Saturday brings more events with T-Mobile and Topps - before Wade will defend his title in the NBA Skills Challenge. He'll start in the All-Star game on Sunday night, flying home to Miami to rejoin the Heat after the game.

So, there'll be no break during the All-Star break.

``I couldn't get a break,'' Wade said. ``I tried. I couldn't. There's a lot of things I want to do and a lot of things I have to do, so I'll just do my best to make it all work.''

Wade still remembers when all this was the stuff of his fantasies.

He grew up very poor and he and his wife often worried about how they would raise their son, Zaire, when he was first born five years ago.

But now, Wade can afford almost anything he wants - and afford to dream big, too.

He wants to be a movie star, build community centers in Miami and Chicago, keep reaching out to kids, all the while being mindful that his top priority remains trying to win another title or more with the Heat.

``I'm trying to do a lot of things, because I just don't want to play basketball and retire,'' Wade said. ``I want to touch lives.''

Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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MySportsbook.com Favors Fighting Irish to win College Football betting odds

According to odds makers at MySportsbook.com, on January 8, the Fighting Irish faithful may be toasting their 14th national title in Arizona – Notre Dame’s first national championship in close to 20 years.

Although MySportsbook.com has listed Notre Dame as the 5-1 favorite to win thecollege football College Football betting, fans in Columbus do not need to cancel their tickets to Glendale just yet.  The Ohio State Buckeyes, listed right behind the Irish at 7-1, are also heavy favorites to win college football’s most coveted prize, while West Virginia, USC and the 2007 National Champion Texas Longhorns - all listed at 8-1 – are strong contenders as well.

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Moving west to the Big 12, MySportsbook.com has betting lines listing Texas as 7-5 favorites to repeat as conference champions, even though the Longhorns lost their national championship-winning quarterback Vince Young to the NFL.  In the south, the Auburn Tigers – led by Heisman-hopeful senior running back Kenny Irons – have been given the best odds to win the SEC Championship odds at 5-2.

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ODDS TO WIN THE BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Notre Dame
Ohio State
West Virginia
Texas
USC
Florida
California
Auburn
Oklahoma
Iowa
Louisville
Florida State
Michigan
Miami (FL)
LSU
Penn State
Virginia Tech
Nebraska
Tennessee
Georgia
Arizona State
Oregon
Clemson
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Alabama
Arkansas
Boston College
Michigan State
Maryland
South Carolina
Colorado
Purdue
Georgia Tech
TCU
UCLA
Arizona
Pittsburgh
Iowa State
Wisconsin
North Carolina State
Virginia
North Carolina
Fresno State
Hawaii
Northwestern
BYU
Oregon State
UNLV
Field (Any Other Team)		 5-1
7-1
8-1
8-1
8-1
12-1
15-1
15-1
18-1
20-1
20-1
20-1
20-1
20-1
25-1
40-1
40-1
50-1
60-1
60-1
60-1
70-1
70-1
100-1
100-1
100-1
100-1
100-1
150-1
200-1
200-1
200-1
200-1
200-1
250-1
250-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
300-1
400-1
500-1
500-1
500-1
500-1
1000-1
1000-1
40-1



ODDS TO WIN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Miami (FL)
Florida State
Virginia Tech
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Boston College
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina State
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Duke		 2-1
2-1
3-1
7-1
15-1
15-1
15-1
30-1
30-1
30-1
50-1
500-1



ODDS TO WIN BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Texas
Oklahoma
Nebraska
Texas Tech
Colorado
Iowa State
Texas A&M
Kansas State
Missouri
Kansas
Baylor
Oklahoma State		 7-5
9-5
9-2
12-1
14-1
15-1
15-1
30-1
30-1
35-1
100-1
100-1



ODDS TO WIN SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Auburn
Florida
LSU
Georgia
Tennessee
Arkansas
Alabama
Mississippi
South Carolina
Mississippi State
Kentucky
Vanderbilt		 5-2
11-4
4-1
6-1
7-1
7-1
9-1
20-1
28-1
75-1
100-1
300-1

For complete NCAA football odds please visit Mysportsbook.com.

Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.