Dwyane Wade’s Arrival Brings Much-Needed Star Power Back to Chicago Bulls

CHICAGO — The NBA world has had over three weeks to digest the notion of Dwyane Wade, Chicago Bull, but it didn’t start to feel real until Friday afternoon.

Even after Wade appeared on Live with Kelly to discuss his decision to leave the Miami Heat after 13 seasons; even after Wade and his wife, actress Gabrielle Union, spent the past two weeks documenting their promotional tour of China on Snapchat, where they frequently sported Bulls gear at public appearances; even after the team made it official and started flashing images of Wade in a Bulls jersey on the video board outside the United Center.

It all still felt hypothetical until Friday, when Wade and his family met with reporters at the Bulls’ practice facility and held up his new jersey.

Wade may be 34 years old, with his best basketball behind him. His on-court fit with Jimmy Butler and Rajon Rondo (the #ThreeAlphas, as they’ve come to be known) may be awkward. But it’s hard to overstate how big a deal it is for fans and those in the Bulls organization that Wade is in town.

Chicago is the NBA’s third-biggest media market, and the Bulls play in a building with a statue of Michael Jordan outside. But until now, the franchise’s biggest free-agent gets were Carlos Boozer as a consolation prize in 2010 and a past-his-prime Pau Gasol in 2014.

Even at the tail end of his career, Wade brings a level of global star power that hasn’t been felt in this basketball-crazed town since Jordan retired in 1998. Derrick Rose came close during his MVP campaign in 2010-11, but he never had the same cultural crossover appeal Wade does. Regardless of basketball implications, that’s something new for the 21st-century Bulls.

“I brought a lot of excitement to Miami, and it’s a home to me,” Wade said. “It will always be. I want to bring a little to Chicago, while I have a little bit left. And I still have a little bit left, by the way. I’ve listened to all of you guys talk over the last couple of weeks. I know what you all have been saying. But I want to come here and be a part of building this organization back up to where this organization should go and should be.”

The afternoon was as polished and well-put-together as anything that has gone on in the Advocate Center since it opened in 2014, and it’s no accident. As monumental a day as this was for the Bulls, it was so far from the biggest spotlight Wade has ever been under.

Wade, remember, was part of one of the most infamous moments in recent NBA history, the “Not one, not two, not …

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