MIAMI -- Antoine Walker understands his new role, and he's ready to embrace it with the Miami Heat.
Throughout most of his first nine seasons, a tenure spent largely with the Boston Celtics, Walker was a marquee guy, someone who teams built offenses around. That won't be the case in Miami, not with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade starring as one of the NBA's elite 1-2 punches.
Yet this was where Walker wanted to be -- not because he wants to relax, but because he wants a title.
"In past years, I've always come in and had to worry about scoring 20, 25 a night for my team to win," Walker said Thursday at his unveiling in Miami. "Now I don't have to worry about that. I can come in and just play ball, just be versatile. Rebound, pass, score -- whatever it calls for that night."
Walker, the centerpiece of the largest trade in NBA history -- a five-team, 13-player behemoth of a deal executed Tuesday night -- figures to come into the season battling incumbent Udonis Haslem for the starting spot at power forward.
His multifaceted game was most attractive, said Heat president Pat Riley.
"We feel like there is a definitive role for him, where he's going to be on the court here and helping this team try to achieve what we need to achieve over the next couple years," Riley said. "I am very happy."
Miami got the three-time All-Star in a sign-and-trade with Boston; Walker is due to make $53 million over the next six seasons. Miami also got point guard Jason Williams, small forward James Posey and forward Andre Emmett in the megatrade, with swingman Eddie Jones, and forwards Rasual Butler and Qyntel Woods leaving the Heat.
Walker, who turns 29 next week, averaged 19.1 points, 9.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists last season; he and Kevin Garnett were the only NBA players to have numbers that high in all three categories.
Plus, Walker was one of six players to average 19 and 9 -- Garnett, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, Elton Brand and O'Neal were the others.
"He's got a multitude of skills," Riley said. "Not just as a ballhandler, but as a passer and a guy that can rebound. ... He's a very, very versatile player so I think he fits into exactly what we're trying to do here from a talent standpoint."
And what that means, apparently, is to get younger, more athletic and deeper -- all at once.
Miami will have a different look in 2005-06, even though it won 59 games last season and took Detroit to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals. And even after the trade, more additions are certain -- considering that the team has only four perimeter players on the current roster.
Erin Brown 
