LeBron James asks Zydrunas Ilgauskas to handle The Heat

Miami Heat continue to whizz through the 2010 NBA free agent period  with new signing Zydrunas Ilgauskas agreeing to sign for the team.  Zydrunas Ilgauskas from Cleveland Cavaliers joins ex team mates LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

At the end of the 2009 season, it was clear that wherever James went, Zydrunas Ilgauskas would follow. The Lithuanian centre says he’s ready to be a team player for The Heat. The Cavaliers signing Shaquille O’Neal could not convince Ilgauskas to stay, “I’ve always been a team-first player my whole career, and that’s never going to change,” Ilgauskas said. “So whatever role they have for me, I’ll be happy to take it and will work my hardest to do the good job. I never had a problem with accepting my role, as you could see from last year.”

Last year, the Cavs’ traded Zydrunas Ilgauskas in an attempt to make a solid post-season run. The Washington Wizards bought out Ilgauskas’ contract where he immediately rejoined the Cavs who were over thrown by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the playoffs.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas has been playing in the NBA since 1997 but has never won a title. Ilgauskas feels that leaving the Cavs’ gives him his best opportunity to win a championship but says the decision was not made lightly, “It was very tough, I love Cleveland. At the end of the day, I decided that Miami is the best place for me to win a ring.”

Ilgauskas’ agent, Herb Rudroy broke the news on Tuesday of the deal rumoured to be worth $2.8 million for two years. Rudroy claims the move to Florida will bring Ilgauskas closer to James whom he considers to be like family: “Once LeBron signed there,” Rudroy said, “LeBron started recruiting him.”

Zydrunas Ilgauskas, also known as “Big Z” says his wife has family in Miami and claims this large, Jewish family, along with some persuasion from James all helped him with his final decision, “LeBron was very encouraging and explained the whole situation, obviously, he’s my friend, and him being there made it a lot easier to choose.”

The Heat are favourites to win over the Cavaliers and are favourites to win the 2011 NBA finals with odds of 7/4.