NBA

Garden path intriguing to Wade, Bosh

CHICAGO — As Dwyane Wade stepped into his black Suburban following a two-hour, 15-minute meeting with the Knicks in a downtown Windy City hotel, the Heat star said he was “intrigued.”

Wade was so intrigued that two hours later, he was conducting his second meeting in 30 hours with the Bulls, who have emerged as real players to land both the Miami Heat star and fellow free agent Chris Bosh. They have the same Chicago-based agent, Henry Thomas.

“It was a real good meeting, real good meeting and I will say I’m intrigued,” Wade said after leaving the Knicks.

Perhaps the Knicks’ jaunt from Cleveland, where they met with LeBron James on Thursday, to Chicago was a waste of jet fuel, but after two years of waiting, they had to take their best cuts — even if Wade and Bosh likely are headed together to either Chicago or Miami.

Surprisingly, Bosh’s meeting with the Knicks, lasting two hours and 40 minutes, was longer than the presentation to James. That’s a good sign. As a Knicks official pointed out, who knows?

The Knicks recruiting team, led by owner James Dolan, left Chicago last night. After the long Bosh pow-pow, they conferred internally for 90 minutes, discussing their situation and their list of lesser-tier free agents.

Short of hitting a grand-slam homer by landing James, the Knicks — with the David Lee era all but over — will come away with power forward Amar’e Stoudemire and try to fill in with sharpshooter Mike Miller, Kyle Korver or Ray Allen.

They also need a starting center, and Brendan Haywood is on the list, but some in the organization feel he wouldn’t fit well in coach Mike D’Antoni’s system. Veteran Kurt Thomas, a former Knick, could be a cheaper option.

“This is not an easy choice for anybody. They’re going to have their patience and do what’s best for them,” D’Antoni said after the meetings with Wade and Bosh. “It takes a little while, they have a lot of people advising them, so they aren’t going to just jump into it.

“They’ve been waiting as long as we have for this moment, and I think they’ll see it through, make sure they cross all the T’s, dot all the I’s and then make a decision based on each one’s needs,” D’Antoni added. “We can’t look in the future, look into people’s minds, after all the presentations, they’ll make a decision when they make it.”

The length of the Bosh meeting was a surprise.

“You’ve gotta enjoy this,” Bosh told reporters staked outside the hotel afterwards. “I always feel like a kid on Christmas.”

One of several marquee free agents on the market, the Raptors power forward tweeted afterward: “Finished with the Knicks. Another impressive one.”

Before the meeting, when Wade was asked if the Knicks have a chance to sign him, he said: “I’m in a New York state of mind right now, so we’ll see.”

marc.berman@nypost.com