If you see Dwyane Wade on the street, give him a hug.

If you see him in a restaurant, pick up his tab.

If you own a yacht, take him fishing -- and make sure he catches a big one. If you own an island, invite him over for a luau.

Send greeting cards with gushing good-luck messages. Compliment his clothes. Donate to his charitable foundation. Offer to wash his car(s).

Cheer extra loudly at Heat games, such as the season opener Wednesday against the New York Knicks.

This is the Year of Loving Dwyane.

We have to keep him happy in Miami or he will leave, and so will any hope of another NBA championship.

We have to make him feel appreciated or when he opts out of the final year of his contract next summer, he will opt out of here.

We have to make him feel fulfilled or we will no longer be eyewitnesses to those exquisite drives to the basket.

Come July, Wade and LeBron James will be free agents, free to decide where they want to spend their futures, and where they can win.

You thought Al Capone was MOST WANTED? Or George Clooney?

The decisions of Wade and James will be awaited with the same sense of suspense that hangs over the Vatican when a new pope is picked.

But only a few teams have the money to hire Wade, and one is the Heat. Team president Pat Riley has stuck to an astute hoarding plan which calls for mediocrity in the short term in exchange for title tilts in the long term.

TOUGH TO WAIT

It's a gamble. Wade doesn't complain much, but he's tired of playing the waiting game.

Since the 2006 NBA championship season, Wade, 27, has essentially wasted three years of his prime, first getting ignominiously swept by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 2007 playoffs, then suffering through the irrelevance of a 15-67 deconstruction and last season carrying young Michael Beasley and limping Jermaine O'Neal to a 43-39 record and a first-round loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

Wade's patience theoretically gets rewarded next summer, when the Heat goes on a shopping spree for the sidekick he has lacked since Shaquille O'Neal left. Riley has enough salary-cap space to re-sign Wade and a free agent such as Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer or Joe Johnson.

Wade gets a raise, too. While most of the nation is coping with Depression-era unemployment and shrinking salaries, Wade lives in a different world, where he can re-sign for $120 million for six seasons.

We just want that world to be centered in South Beach, where Wade, once a shy and soft-spoken rookie, has blossomed into one of the suave VIPs who keep our gossip pages humming. He leaves and who do we have to offset Dennis Rodman?

This is the Year of Loving D-Wade, so if he is standing behind J-Lo or Jay-Z or A-Rod in the velvet rope line, please let him cut to the front.

Hey, Dolphins czar Stephen Ross, if Serena and Venus Williams can be minority owners, why not Wade?

TEMPTATIONS AWAIT

We have to fawn over Wade now because the league's scoring leader will be tempted to say adios to our balmy breezes. New York wants him -- New York, Neeewww York! So do the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets. Chicago will try to woo Wade back to his hometown.

Detroit, another hard-core sports city, would embrace him. The Clippers, out in the land of red carpets, have potential cap space, too.

Wade and James hold destiny in their hands the way they hold the ball on their leaps to the hoop. They want victories with their riches.

Unfortunately, we can't help Wade win games. That's up to his Heat teammates and coaches. But heckling the Knicks mercilessly doesn't hurt. Then blow more kisses at Dwyane. Show him your love and maybe it won't go unrequited.

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