Dwyane Wade Recalls How His “Attitude Problem” Almost Got Him Shot While Hooping as a Youngster

Dwyane Wade is a Hall of Famer who was one of the best NBA guards in recent memory. But did you know that he once had a life-threatening altercation that almost ended his life? That’s right, Wade recently shared that his brash, youthful attitude almost got him shot during a game of pickup basketball growing up. And the story is even crazier than you ever thought it would be.

Wade grew up in the South Side of Chicago. It’s an area that can get pretty rough in some spots, and he definitely felt the brunt of that at times during his childhood. One time, his father took him to a popular pickup basketball spot in the area called the Lakefront. It was a time and place for Wade to see how good he was against other competition.

Wade would always watch his dad play at the pickup hotspot as a kid. But as an older teen, he was excited to finally play on the court with the big boys. 

“When I was growing up, there were certain places that you had to go play to get your stripes, or to see where you were at, and where the competition was at. So, one of the places was the Lakefront. My dad always growing up, he would go play at the Lakefront. He’d take us as we were growing up,” Wade shared on his YouTube. 

It was an exciting time for the young Wade. However, things got out of hand quickly. You see, Wade had a bit of an attitude problem when he started to grow as a basketball player. He became cocky and brash, which could lead to some heated altercations on the court at times. 

Well, Wade soon found out that how he learned to play ball in his backyard didn’t fly at the pickup courts. 

“Somebody fouled me, and I just took the ball and slung it at their head. Like, quickly… Because that’s how we grew up playing. We threw balls at each other, hit each other. We were raised like that in the backyard, hooping,” Wade reasoned. “So, I did it, right? And man, this dude took that ball and threw it back at me so fast.”

All of a sudden, the future NBA star was in an argument with a person he didn’t know. Not only that, but people started to gang up on Wade. Naturally, his father jumped in to defend his son.

But both Wade and his father would soon learn that they had picked a fight with the wrong people. 

“So, you know, my dad jumped, like, ‘Man, that’s my son! What’s wrong with you?’ When I tell you it got scary in 5 seconds. Motherf*****s started grabbing sh*t. They start going to the car. You saw the gun go ‘Click, click.’ I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ So, we came to find out the guy was one of the leaders of the gangs in Chicago,” Wade revealed.

The wild revelation almost led to his and his father’s demise. But thankfully, they had somebody who came with them who would eventually settle things down.  

“I had a friend that was playing with us that knew all of them,” Wade’s father revealed. “He was like, ‘Yo, those are my boys. That’s his son. Let it slide.’ Yeah, that was a dangerous time, though.”

The dangerous event is one they both laugh about now. But Wade later shared that he was legitimately scared for his life for about 10 minutes. His dad joked that he thought they would make it out of the park, but in an ambulance. 

How crazy is that? We almost never got to see the careers of one of the greatest guards to ever play over a one-off altercation during a pickup game. It’s a story that needs to be heard to be believed. Furthermore, if one good thing came out of it, Wade immediately corrected his attitude issues after that- especially during pickup games.