Dwyane Wade is one of the more popular celebrities surrounding the NBA currently. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s a 3x NBA Champion, 13x NBA All-Star, 1x Finals MVP, and arguably the greatest player in Miami Heat history. After his retirement, Wade has tried his hand at a lot of things, including franchise ownership.
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The Miami Heat legend is a part owner of the Utah Jazz, the team hosting the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. He’s built a net worth of $170 Million. From getting an equity stake in Li-Ning to getting his own NFTs, the Flash has made some really smart decisions on his part.
However, things weren’t always like this. No one knows about it better than his former business partner Richard Von Houtman. He spilled the deep, dark secrets about the 2006 Finals MVP in 2009.
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“Dwyane Wade wasn’t the new Michael Jordan!”: Richard Von Houtman
In 2009, Dwyane Wade was a huge star. He won a championship in 2006 alongside Shaquille O’Neal. He was part of the 2008 Redeem Team that went to Beijing and brought back glory to US Basketball.
While Wade’s stock was on the up, Von Houtman decided to get together with him in a restaurant chain. However, the same crashed and burned, which left Houtman disgruntled. He spoke about Wade’s lack of sincerity towards business.
“The man isn’t what people worldwide think he is. He and his friends are just a bunch of idiots. I mean, I’m in Chicago at a charity party in 2007, and weed is being passed around, and Wade takes a hit in front of everybody.”
“I got sucked into doing business with him because he has a first-class media persona, the new Michael Jordan. He was that good guy, father-of-the-year, celebrity who had his head on his shoulder. I found out after a year he was not like that.”
This was followed by a suit filed by Von Houtman and his other partners against Dwyane. They sued the Heat superstar for $25 Million for a restaurant chain that never started.
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D Wade sued Richard Von Houtman for $100 Million
After Von Houtman went ahead and gave the interview in February 2009, people were waiting for Dwyane Wade and his team to respond. They decided to do just that in June as they filed a $100 Million suit against Richard Von Houtman.
Von Houtman labeled Wade as a philandering cocaine and steroid user. He also claimed The Flash was the reason their restaurant chain failed. Richard had also sent mails to Pat Riley, making drug and s*x party claims.
What actually happened to that lawsuit is not public knowledge, but it is believed that the same might have been settled out of court.
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