MIAMI ? To an extent, he is the personification of his native land -- articulate, creative, warm, intelligent, but not particularly aggressive, leaving the displays of force to others around him.

Reserve center Vladimir Stepania has proved to be a revelation for the Heat this season. His rebounding has exceeded expectations. His ability to buy time with Alonzo Mourning on the bench has provided an element that Duane Causwell could not offer the previous four seasons.

Yet as deep as the personal satisfactions run, it is another revelation, the revelation that his homeland could emerge as the next front on the war on terrorism, that has caused Stepania to take pause.

Ask Stepania about the Republic of Georgia, and his thoughts wander thousands of miles away. He has seen the preferred vacation destination of the Soviet Union become yet another breakaway republic in turmoil.

American advisors are on the way to help hunt down al-Qaida in the lawless regions of his homeland, with $64 million in U.S. funds pledged toward the effort.

"I know very well what's going on there, but I don't have control,'' Stepania said, his only connection to his homeland coming through nightly updates via the internet. "I'm Georgian. I love Georgia, it's a beautiful country.

"These are nice people. They like sports. They like art. They don't have the ability to fight wars because the people are so nice. There is such a high culture level there. There is nothing they can do. The people, they want to have a nice life."

It has been 61/2 years since Stepania, a native of now-deteriorating Tbilisi, resided in Georgia. The formative years of his basketball career were spent in Slovenia. But a connection remains.

Stepania's father, Zauri, is a member of the government in Georgia. But his son acknowledges that the political clout from inside the government is limited. When the United States broached the subject of hunting down al-Qaida in the mountainous Pankisi Gorge, adjacent to the breakaway Chechnya region, permission was sought from Russia.

Stepania said he applauds the efforts of Georgia President Eduard Shevardnadze, the former Soviet foreign minister under Mikhail Gorbachev. An independent homeland, free of Russian sovereignty, has been a harsh reality. Russian influence is undeniable. While an American presence figures to have a short-term impact on settling other disputes, Stepania understands the reality of the Transcaucasus.

"They all the time have wars. They all the time have problems,'' he said. "It is how it is, how it is going to be. Georgia is so small, it's so destroyed. We've had four wars."

Stepania begins to speak of the "Big Bear" of Russia but catches himself before getting into an area of political debate, a subject that is difficult with a Russian-born mother. For three centuries, Georgia had been under the rule of Russians, first the czars, then the Soviets.

"I'm worried," he said. "It's a strategic region. There are Muslims and Russians and Germans and Christians. It's such a small nation. Throw a match on it and it's going to smoke."

The wondrous Georgia of his father is not one Stepania can relate to. It is among the reasons he left.

"When I was young, with my generation, it was very bad, with war, with corruption,'' the 25-year-old veteran of four NBA seasons said. "My father's generation? It was beautiful."

As he scans the internet, reads of al-Qaida and suspected hideaways in the Pankisi Gorge, of the lawlessness there, the gun runners, the drug smugglers, the kidnappers, he reflects on what he left behind, what likely will never be the same as even he remembers it. Vivid are memories of 1993 and the 300,000 ethnic Georgians driven from the Black Sea province of Abkhazia by separatists believed to have Russian backing.

"Abkhazia,'' Stepania said, as his eyes widened, "beautiful, unbelievable. I have been to Switzerland, Monte Carlo, California, Florida. There were oranges, plantations, mountains and a really warm sea. Now, you cannot go there."

Now there is the $64 million being spent by the United States to train and equip Georgian troops, about three times the entire budget for Georgia's 17,000-man military. Only since Sept. 11 has Washington lifted a ban on lethal military aid for Georgia.

The war on terrorism has not only changed life in his adopted home, but his homeland.

"I am really happy the Americans went in,'' he said, sweat still dripping from Wednesday's practice at AmericanAirlines Arena. "We need this help."