Dwyane Wade has one of the most impressive resumes in basketball history. He brought Marquette to the Final Four in 2003, won three NBA titles with the Miami Heat, and retired as one of the greatest 2-guards the game has ever seen. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023 and has a statue outside the Heat’s arena.
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In an alternate timeline, none of that would have happened, because as a kid growing up in the Windy City, Wade dreamed of playing wide receiver for his favorite team, the Chicago Bears. It was his dad that had to push him into being a basketball player.
As a guest on Hoda Kotb’s Making Space podcast, Wade described how his passion was the gridiron, not the hardwood. “I actually loved football. That was actually my first love,” he said. But then his father, who Wade said was a military man that played all kinds of sports, pushed him towards basketball.
After Wade’s dad gave him the push, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls clinched his love for the game. “I was like, ‘That’s who I want to be like now, move over, Dad,'” he laughed. “Move out the way, pops.”
It’s a good thing for the game of basketball that Wade’s two role models steered him toward the game, as without them he probably would have used his athleticism elsewhere. To be fair, the Bears did have a need for a wide receiver throughout much of Wade’s career, though he would have had to attend a different school, as Marquette hasn’t had a football team since 1960.
Wade has given his dad credit for inspiring his love for the game, but he also credits him for so much more.
Dwyane Wade’s dad used basketball to teach his son about the game of life
Wade’s dad began teaching his son basketball fundamentals at the age of five, but he also taught him about much more. “I came to understand, that Pops wasn’t simply teaching me about the game of basketball,” Wade once said. “He was teaching me about the game of life. The discipline, the dedication, the commitment to excellence required to be a champion.”
He also spoke about how his dad used to go all-out against him when they’d play each other in the backyard. That tough love helped mold him into the champion that he would become. “When I would cry and said I can’t, you made me go harder. You pushed me to limits that I didn’t know were inside of me,” Wade said.
Whatever Dwyane Wade Sr. did, it obviously worked, as not only did his son go on to become a basketball legend, he’s continued that success as a community leader and activist. The Wade Family Foundation has done outstanding work to promote racial justice and LGBTQ equality, especially for kids from underserved communities, and Wade himself was once named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
