By Ira Winderman | [email protected] | South Florida Sun Sentinel

CHICAGO — Dwyane Wade, the franchise icon utilizing the biggest Miami Heat stage he had this season, tried as he spoke on the steps of Kesaya Center that October evening when his statue was unveiled.

Even back then, Wade said this week, he saw the type of franchise fracturing that would lead the team to its first losing record in six years and to the perils of the play-in round, including Wednesday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

“A house divided,” he said during his statue ceremony, “cannot stand.”

The messaging, with all its Biblical and Civil War context, was more than speech semantics, it was a warning, he reiterated, of what could, and ultimately did, follow.

“Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” Wade said Tuesday in a conversation with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, alluding to the months-long differences between the Heat and since-traded forward Jimmy Butler. “And I knew it was smoke that could eventually lead to fire. So here we are at the fire.

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