MIAMI - Spike Lee is seated across from Dwyane Wade, then shouts "action" as the steamy gymnasium, transformed into a temporary studio becomes silent. "Show us your game face," says Lee, the die-hard basketball fan and renowned director.

In this photo released by Converse, film director Spike Lee, left, shares a laugh with Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade, right, between takes of the filming of a new Converse shoe television commercial, Sept. 25, 2006, in Miami. Indeed, these are fun times for the Heat superstar, who is becoming perhaps just as valuable in the business world as the basketball one. A new batch of Converse television commercials with Lee, featuring Wade's newest shoe line, hits the airwaves Thursday. A new Gatorade ad campaign is coming this winter. He's selling cell phones for T-Mobile and sports-utility vehicles for Lincoln. He's on the cover of GQ and countless other magazines, too. [AP]

Wade knows the line is coming. He turns to the left, then back toward the camera, but can't hold the serious look and breaks out laughing.

Indeed, these are fun times for the Miami Heat's superstar guard, who is becoming perhaps just as valuable in the business world as the basketball one. A new batch of Converse television commercials with Lee, featuring Wade's newest shoe line, hits the airwaves Thursday. A new Gatorade ad campaign is coming this winter. He's selling cell phones for T-Mobile and sports-utility vehicles for Lincoln. He's on the cover of GQ and countless other magazines, too.

Dwyane Wade - or "Wade, Inc." as he referred to himself, albeit only half-seriously is everywhere.

Even he can't truly believe how quickly it's all happened.

"It's all overwhelming," Wade says. "But nice, too."

Winning an NBA championship and taking home the finals MVP in only his third season served as the perfect capper to his meteoric rags-to-riches story, the one where a poor kid from a tough neighborhood in Chicago becomes a college star at Marquette, a first-round draft pick, Shaquille O'Neal's prime cohort in Miami and arguably the game's hottest star.

He'll get his first championship ring next Tuesday when the Heat open their season against the Bulls. He signed a contract extension over the summer that could be worth around $63 million. That figure might look like chump change when he signs his next deal sometime around 2010.

And he's just getting started.

"To think that a guy won a championship in his third year and is only going to get better," Philadelphia 76ers coach Maurice Cheeks said, "is a scary thought."

Wade averaged 27.2 points, 6.7 assists and 5.8 rebounds last season, then averaged 34.7 points in the finals against Dallas.

His numbers have gotten better each year, and in turn, so has his marketability.

Wade's profit from endorsement and other business deals this season will dwarf the $3.8 million salary he's set to draw in the final year of his first contract. And although he declines to discuss specifics, clearly his earning power is already near the top of the NBA star echelon.

"That to me is a great opportunity for him to double or triple or whatever it is and set up his family for life and become a corporate spokesperson long after he retires," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "That's the dream of players. That's what this is all about. That's the residual reward of it."

Yet somehow, those around him insist he remains modest, which is what drew Lee to him in the first place.

A generation ago, Lee played a character in some of the earliest Michael Jordan commercials and helped deliver the catch phrase "It's gotta be the shoes!" - for Nike.

Lee's not acting in this Converse campaign with Wade, by his own choosing. He doesn't like comparing Wade and Jordan as players, but sees obvious parallels in their style.

"If you think that you can't get any better, then you're done," Lee said. "You always have to think that I can get better and that's what I liked about M.J. and now Dwyane. Guys like Dwyane and M.J., whatever deficiency they had in their game, they worked on it in the offseason while some of these cats don't work on those parts of their game."

Ah, but finding time to work on his game was tough for Wade this summer.

He was with USA Basketball's national team for the world championships, and when he returned home in early September, the next four weeks until training camp were filled with business obligations.

"It's about you making it and it's about you bringing others along," Wade said. "It's work, but you want to have fun and show people who you really are. That's what they want to see."

One day after the Lee shoot, Wade's in another gym, this time filming a Gatorade spot that'll come out sometime around the All-Star break. Heat teammate Udonis Haslem, who also appears in this ad, is playfully spraying water on Wade while workers remove a specially built camera that was strapped to Wade's torso to tightly capture the look on his face while he drove for a dunk.

Someone grabs a microphone and announces that one of the 1,000 or so extras brought in for the day lost their driver's license, an eyeglass case and a cell phone - a brand that Wade doesn't endorse.

The pitchman doesn't miss this opportunity.

"Get yourself a T-Mobile," Wade shouts, drawing a hearty laugh.

With that, he's finally freed from that body-hugging camera. Another eight-hour day is done. An offseason filled with business responsibility and opportunity is complete.

At last, it's time to defend that championship.

"Until next year," Wade says as he walks off the floor, "that's a wrap."