MIAMI (AP) – Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade is embroiled in a multimillion-dollar legal mess with former business partners that could prove costly for the NBA star.

A deal to open a restaurant chain – D. Wade’s Place – which Wade and a friend, Marcus Andrews, hoped would go nationwide barely got off the ground. Now those former business associates claim Wade walked away from a binding contract.

“He’s only hurting himself. It’s become something it shouldn’t have,” said Richard von Houtman, one of Wade’s ex-partners in the failed restaurant-and-memorabilia chain venture that once envisioned 40 locations. “It would have been phenomenal.”

Wade, the NBA’s leading scorer last season, is acutely aware of the impact his legal struggles could have on his future endorsement earnings.

“In my profession, your name and likeness is all people know about you. They don’t know just the person,” Wade said in a court deposition obtained by The Associated Press. “So, with that being said, with my name and likeness being dragged through everything … there’s already a hit on my brand and a hit to my name. That’s not good.”

Wade has also filed a $100 million libel lawsuit against von Houtman over e-mails his former partner sent to Heat president Pat Riley. Wade’s brand, though, still seems to be strong: Earlier this month, he changed shoe companies, leaving Converse for Nike’s Jumpman, the line made ultra-popular by Michael Jordan.

Dozens of people who signed up to work for the restaurant chain – some abandoning promising careers – were left out in the cold when it abruptly folded last year. Though Wade claims he is also a victim, many blame him.

“A lot of people got hurt. They believed in him,” said Adam Mesmer, who was to be operations director and now runs a restaurant called Miami Prime Grill where a flagship D. Wade’s Place had been poised to open. “We worked so hard to put something together.”

All this comes as Wade, 27, is going through a messy divorce from his wife, Siohvaughn, and an arbitration proceeding over claims that he improperly walked away from a Miami charter school for at-risk kids that was supposed to bear his name.

The grand restaurant venture began with T-shirts.

In 2007, von Houtman – a wealthy British expatriate who says he is a German baron – became acquainted with Wade’s friend Andrews.

The original plan to market a line of T-shirts, according to von Houtman and court documents, quickly turned to talk of upscale, sports-themed restaurants that would sell all sorts of Wade memorabilia. Von Houtman brought in Mark Rodberg, who had experience in developing restaurants, and the two of them inked the D. Wade’s Place deal with Wade and Andrews on Aug. 6, 2007.

Wade was to be paid $1 million as well as receive 10 percent ownership in the venture, with Andrews getting a 2 percent stake. The rest would go to von Houtman and Rodberg.

As the deal progressed, Wade said in his deposition, there was talk among the partners of the “Shaq component,” bringing in another high-profile NBA star such as Shaquille O’Neal, who along with Wade had led the Heat to the 2006 NBA championship.

Wade has filed a counterclaim seeking up to $50 million against his ex-partners as well as the libel lawsuit against von Houtman. Von Houtman has filed a counterclaim to the libel case, and his lawyer Bruce Fein contends it was Heat officials who suggested von Houtman bring concerns about Wade to Riley.