AP Interview: Wade ready for his Chicago challenge

MIAMI (AP) It's not like Dwyane Wade has never dealt with change before.

He played for three head coaches in 13 seasons with the Miami Heat, helped orchestrate one of the most scrutinized free-agent hauls in NBA history when LeBron James and Chris Bosh came to play alongside him, and had 112 teammates along the way.

So going into a new locker room doesn't figure to overwhelm him.

Wade's first official day of work with an NBA team other than Miami comes on Monday, when he goes to media day on the eve of his first training camp with the Chicago Bulls - the team he grew up rooting for, a club he has faced off against 64 times as an opponent and now the franchise he'll be asked to help lead.

''It's going to be difficult, 100 percent. I'm fine with it, though,'' Wade said in an interview with The Associated Press. ''For me, it goes back to the whole challenge thing. It's not like I haven't done this before. At the end of the day we're all wearing the same jersey right now and we have to come together, just like any team. And that's going to be tough.''

Wade left Miami this summer in a move that shocked the Heat. He took a two-year deal worth about $47 million from the Bulls, who came in offering a bit more than what the Heat were able to promise. He leaves Miami has one of two players who were on all three Heat championship teams - Udonis Haslem is the other - and as the franchise leader in points by an enormous margin.

But now he changes addresses, changes colors and in many ways is starting over. So are the Heat, who won't have him and will go into the season without Bosh - still sidelined by the blood-clot problem that ended each of his last two seasons, an issue that now seems to be putting any plans he has for a return to the court in major jeopardy.

Wade said he still wants the very best for Bosh. He'll just have to send those wishes from afar now, while he gets ready to embrace his own challenge of meshing with Jimmy Butler, Rajon Rondo and the rest of the Bulls.

''When I don't have anything else left to prove, then I don't need to play the game of basketball,'' Wade said. ''I want to prove I'm out of my comfort zone. I'm in a totally different environment, a totally different system. This is a challenge for me, at this stage of my career. Leave it up to me to put myself in a challenge and not just fade to black in the comfortableness of Miami.''

Wade turns 35 in January, and answered plenty of questions about his supposed durability issues last year. He played in 74 games for Miami, got lighter and leaner to take pressure off his knees and hamstrings, averaged 19 points a game and was an All-Star for the 12th consecutive season.

He's not the Wade who led the league in scoring in 2009, or was NBA Finals MVP in 2006.

He does, however, think he's smarter than ever.

''There's no risk for me,'' Wade said. ''It's basketball. It's just a sport, man. And I'm pretty good at it. I know the game and I've put in so much work in this sport, everything right now is just the cherry on top of the whipped cream.''