Dwyane Wade was one of the most dynamic and exciting players to watch in NBA history. But before he was a three-time champion and Hall of Famer, he was just a kid at Marquette looking for confidence. Fortunately for him, he played under famed coach Tom Crean, who gave him all the confidence he needed.
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The Heat legend spoke about Coach Crean on the latest edition of his podcast. “There was nothing better than getting an iso by Coach Crean in college,” he recalled when speaking on his Marquette days. “I’ll get the iso right at the end, he’d be like, ‘kill his a**.'”
The memory physically moved Wade and the rest of his boys, an indication of how meaningful that little bit of pep talk was to him. “That little juice right there. That little belief that you have in me….mmmmm.” Wade added, confirming that Crean’s words indeed pumped him up.
Wade then shared another memory of Crean doing something small that stuck with him and gave him confidence in a pressure-packed in-game situation.
“I got to make some clutch free throws,” started Wade. “And he came right in, ‘He’s about to make these. Soon as he made these…'” Crean’s confidence that he would sink the shots filled Wade with confidence as well. “Yeah, I’m about to make these. Something that simple, but the confidence is everything.”
If you look at Crean’s college coaching record, you’ll see that he wasn’t someone who had a lot of trophies. Not a lot of success in comparison to John Wooden or Coach K. But Crean did something just as important. He inspired the NBA of the future.
Wade said great things about Crean during his Marquette Hall of Fame speech
Crean’s influence on Wade was not forgotten by the NBA Hall of Famer. In fact, when he was inducted into the Marquette Hall of Fame in 2009, he applauded the college coach for believing in him.
“I want to say thank you for being hard on me, as you were. The one story that will always stick out in my mind about Coach, and this took our relationship to another level. I had a lot of things going on in my life, but this one moment,” started Wade.
As a young kid I had a kid, I had a child and I really didn’t know at that time what to do. And I went to Coach and I asked him, I said, ‘What am I going to do?’ And I started crying and he put my head on his shoulder and he said, ‘We will get through this.’ And I will never forget that moment. And Coach, we got through it in a very big way- so thank you for being a father figure to me, I appreciate it.”
In the end, D-Wade never forgot what Coach Tom Crean meant to him. It wasn’t just about basketball—it was about having faith in a kid when not many others did. That faith helped shape Wade into a Hall of Famer. And to this day, he still calls Crean one of the most important figures in his life.
