San Antonio, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta and Sacramento also were believed to be seriously vying for Oden this summer, with a handful of other clubs expressing a lower level of interest.
"The scenario at San Antonio made sense for him also," Conley said. "You have a coach there in Gregg Popovich that's used to bringing players back slowly and Tim Duncan to learn from. He was definitely impressed with Mark Cuban in Dallas and meeting him, and he's really good friends with (coach) Monty Williams at New Orleans. It wasn't cut and dry across the board for Miami."
Still, the Heat won out, and did so at a bargain price.
Miami used the amnesty provision on Mike Miller last month, a move that could save the team more than $35 million in luxury-tax payments over the next two years. Oden likely could have gotten more money elsewhere, but the Heat have shown many times over the last three summers that they can get players to take less money in exchange for being part of a title-contending team.
"He wants to compete for championships," Conley said.
if he's even half of what he was 
the league done goofed
