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What Had Happened Was: 7/6/16

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    Police Shooting-Louisiana
    Family and friends of Alton Sterling, including his cousin Jakayla Sterling, foreground, protest on the corner of Fairfields Ave. and North Foster Drive, after he was fatally shot in an altercation with Baton Rouge Police just after midnight, in the parking lot of the Triple S Food Store, Tuesday, July 5, 2016, in Baton Rouge, La. Travis Spradling/The Advocate via AP
    By Ryan Cortes Rhiannon Walker

    GAME. BLOUSES.

    How much are loyalty and optics and family actually worth?

    We’re about to find out with Dwyane Wade. After a failed attempt to lure Oklahoma City Thunder free agent Kevin Durant to South Beach, Pat Riley and the Miami Heat offered Wade what many presumed he wanted: The same kind of money he made last year, $20 million. But Riley’s two-year, $40 million offer reportedly still wasn’t enough for the man. He wants $50 million and he’ll continue to flirt with the Denver Nuggets, Chicago Bulls and — gulp — the Cleveland Cavaliers.

    If you think Wade is bluffing, that’s cool, but you also probably haven’t seen his actress wife Gabrielle Union’s Twitter recently. These are just a sampling of the tweets Union has liked over the past handful of days:

    https://twitter.com/TorreySmithWR/status/750005158965235712

    The fracture in the relationship between Wade and the Heat appears real and substantive. The question is whether Wade has enough leverage to actually command $50 million. On truth serum, Riley might just tell you he’s fine with Wade leaving for Denver or Chicago — how much damage could he actually do on nonchampionship contenders? — but Cleveland? Nah, bruh.

    Despite chatter that Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James could take a cheap deal next year (he has a $1 billion Nike deal to “supplement” his income), Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald reported Tuesday that Wade-to-Cleveland is merely a pipe dream.

    Now, it’s obviously Wade’s right to bounce for any city that he desires, but he’s wrong if he believes the Heat owe him something. The money he sacrificed to play with James and Chris Bosh, while noble, also won him championships he wouldn’t have otherwise seen. That matters. Dirk Nowitzki has taken less money for the Dallas Mavericks for years and to no avail. The Mavericks, in theory, owe him something because his sacrifice birthed nothing in the way of teammates like James and Bosh. Wade’s sacrifice was repaid already, with rings plural.

    There’s also this: Paying for past performance instead of future performance is just … bad business. Ask the Los Angeles Lakers, who gave Kobe Bryant a two-year, $48.5 million deal at the end of his career. Now? They can’t even sniff a meeting with elite free agents. That could be the Heat soon. Or the team could be without its best player ever. How much is loyalty and optics and family worth?

    SOCIAL STATUS

    On Tuesday morning, Alton Sterling was killed by a member of the Baton Rouge Police Department. The 37-year-old was outside of a convenience store selling CDs when he was fatally shot.

    A video of the incident appears to show that a conversation between him and two police officers became physical. One officer can be heard yelling that Sterling has a gun, and the other police officer fired at least two rounds into Sterling head and neck area.

    The convenience store clerk explained what he believed happened to the media.

    Warning sensitive material shown below:

    https://twitter.com/TodaysLoop/status/750498933575651328

    https://twitter.com/thacelebritea/status/750528963206938625

    BLESSINGS!

    Let’s check in now on Miami Heat fans. How y’all holding up? Oh. We see.

    https://twitter.com/Alf954/status/750505459346448385

     

    FOR THE CULTURE

    Venus Williams has advanced to the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 2010.

    Smokey Robinson, 76, will receive the eighth edition of the Gershwin Prize, which is awarded for popular song.

    Donald Glover’s new show, Atlanta, will premiere on Sept. 6, FX announced.

    A history lesson: The battle that ensued to desegregate American libraries.

    One hundred and seventy-five Iraqis lost their lives in Baghdad as Ramadan concludes.

    TOP THREE TWEETS

    Every morning we’ll hit you here with the best of what we saw on social media the previous night. Why? Why not?

    1. *SIPS TEA*

    2. WHERE’S THE CHILL?

    3. THE IMPOSTERS

    #ICYMI

    ESPN’s Dan Le Batard wrote a thought-provoking column on the crumbling relationship between Wade and the Miami Heat:

    When James cost Wade $10 million by leaving — Wade had opted out of a $42 million contract to create max room for James, only to get stuck with a $32 million deal when James bolted — a frenzy started. Houston swooped in to steal Bosh. According to three sources, the Heat was informed that Bosh was leaving to Houston for $88 million. Miami offered about $7 million more than that. Nope. Had to be the max — $118 million. Nothing less than the max would keep Bosh in Miami. The Heat wanted to pay Bosh and Wade equally, $18 million a year, and protect future flexibility. Nope. Bosh gets the max or he’s gone. And that’s how Thomas got one client his money in Miami while the other one, the older one, now fights for more dollars from a team that has already offered him all of its remaining cap space. Wade doesn’t blame James or Bosh or his agent publicly, but he sure as hell seems to blame the Heat. During all those free-agent meetings, Durant told suitors that he valued a win-now roster more than money, and he proved it with his decision. But Riley met him with question marks on Bosh and Wade — with no real chance, in other words. Wade, it became clear to anyone watching, is no longer working with the Heat. And that puts into very real question, more than ever, how much longer he will be working for the Heat.

    PICTURE PERFECT

     

    Ryan Cortes is a staff writer for The Undefeated. Lemon pepper his wings.

    Rhiannon Walker is an associate editor at The Undefeated. She is a drinker of Sassy Cow Creamery chocolate milk, an owner of an extensive Disney VHS collection, and she might have a heart attack if Frank Ocean doesn't drop his second album.

    This Story Tagged: Miami Heat What Had Happened Was Dwyane Wade