MIAMI -- The Miami Heat are taking a long flight just to play a couple of preseason games.

For Miami, a week in Paris and London will seem nothing like a vacation.

Sure, they'll gather together at the Eiffel Tower and take a bus ride through the streets of England's biggest city, snapping photos and making videos like just about every other tourist. Dwyane Wade said he's been thinking about the trip for weeks. Udonis Haslem is anxious to play in France again. Michael Beasley, well, he's just leery of the long flight.

But for Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, it's a business trip -- and he'd like his team to remember that.

The Heat will spend seven days overseas, playing the New Jersey Nets on Thursday in Paris and then again on Sunday in London, part of the annual NBA Europe Live tour. It's a long trip and brings about some logistical headaches, yet Spoelstra thinks the extra time together as a team could prove valuable to Miami when the regular season starts in about three weeks.

"There is a chance to bond and practice and do things outside of the court to spend time with each other," Spoelstra said. "We do have new players. We have a bunch of guys coming from different places and it's invaluable to spend time like that. I'm hoping guys will spend time together, in another country, and get a better understanding of each other -- starting the process of us being together."

Wade, who has pulled out his passport more than a few times in recent weeks, traveling with the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team and then vacationing in the Caribbean afterward, said he doesn't mind getting back on a plane for a nine-hour trip across the Atlantic.

Like Spoelstra, he sees it as a great opportunity for the Heat to break the monotony of preseason work.

"We'll enjoy being away from Miami and being together as a team and really looking and seeing what we have to do going into the season," Wade said.

To Haslem, who's a Miami native, landing in France will almost seem like a homecoming.

After college, when the NBA passed him over, he played in France and became a viable pro. The Heat kept an eye on him, brought Haslem home six years ago and he's been their anchor at power forward ever since.

"It'll be a good opportunity," said Haslem, who missed Sunday's preseason opening loss to Detroit because of some lingering foot problems that wouldn't have kept him out of a regular-season game. "I still keep in touch with people there from time to time, but more so than anything else, I'm just happy to be on the court, be it in France or anywhere else."

Some of the Heat players will be automatic draws on the trip. Wade's Olympic success and All-Star status surely will make him recognizable even to the casual European fan, Haslem's presence will add intrigue to the game in Paris, and forward Yahkouba Diawara was born in France's capital city.

Even when Heat president Pat Riley is vacationing in France, he's recognizable.

Well, somewhat.

Riley, his wife Chris, and their actor friends Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones were on a barge trip together in that part of the world this summer, when Tour de France officials were looking for celebrities to present the yellow jersey after a stage of cycling's most famous race. They inquired about Douglas' availability, and someone in the vacationing party suggested Riley assist as well.

Pat who?

"Peet Reeley, Peet Reeley, basketball, Peet Reeley," Riley said, in his best French accent.

"And they said, 'OK, both of you do it,"' Riley recalled. "Believe me, they wanted Michael to put the yellow jersey on him. I came along as a stiff."

That's probably how Beasley will be on the flight -- stiff.

The prospects of a nine-hour plane ride didn't sit well with the 19-year-old, who doesn't even seem to sit still when he's on the Heat bench.

"Man is not supposed to be in the air that long," said Beasley, who also wasn't thrilled to learn that the train carrying the Heat from Paris to London on Friday goes under the English Channel, either.

It's not like he has a choice.

The NBA beckoned, the Heat accepted, and the plan would be that the next week brings a bunch of individuals still getting to know each other together as one team.

"It's a great opportunity," Wade said. "It's a chance for us to grow together. It's going to be an unbelievable experience and it's going to be great for us."