Ira Winderman of the Miami Sun-Sentinel is reporting that Juwan Howard is close to signing with the Miami Heat (H/T to Slam). Finally, after all these years, Juwan will be playing for Pat Riley and the Heat. When the agreement goes through, as pointed out by Winderman, it will mark almost 14 years to the day when Howard signed a $100-plus million contract with Miami, which was later voided by the NBA, granting Howard a return to the Washington Bullets.

I wrote extensively about Howard’s tumultuous tenure in Washington (and 1996 flirtation with Miami) back in April. Him going to the Heat now seems kind of weird, an anti-poetic justice (for Washington fans, not so much for Miami fans). And even though Howard’s agent, David Falk, said the “Cold War” between him and the Wizards was over back in mid-June, he’s surely taking some devious satisfaction over the late Abe Pollin’s former franchise that he’s finally ushered Howard to South Beach to win a championship.

And I suppose this also means that the proctologist has finally removed the NBA’s 17-foot pole from Pat Riley’s rear.

A home for Shaun Livingston?

K.C. Johnson of Chicago Breaking Sports is reporting that the Chicago Bulls have had internal discussions about adding Shaun Livingston to their roster to backup Derrick Rose (H/T to Bulls Confidential and @ShamSports).

As it’s become apparent that Shaun would not be coming back to Washington (via John Wall and Kirk Hinrich), I love it if he signed with the Bulls. He’ll get playing time, as Rose doesn’t have much behind him right now, he’ll play for a contender, and he’ll get to go back home to Illinois.

When the Bulls visited the Verizon Center back in April, Rashad Mobley for Hoops Addict put together a nice profile on the Illinois connections between Livingston and Rose.

Good luck to Shaun, wherever he ends up, and good luck to Juwan — I suppose … I surely won’t be rooting for the Heat any time soon.