Seeing Weakness In His Dad And Looking Up To Michael Jordan, Dwyane Wade Compares Shedeur Sanders’ Family Situation To His Own

As the NBA playoffs march on, the NFL is gearing up for the beginning of its 2025-2026 season. The football juggernauts’ draft has been ongoing, and one of the biggest stories coming out of it isn’t who got drafted, but who didn’t. Shedeur Sanders, son of Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, was at one point expected to be a top 3 pick. We are now on night two of the NFL draft, and he’s yet to be selected.

Why the dramatic slide? For weeks, the media has pushed a negative narrative against the 23-year-old Colorado quarterback for being unprofessional during his interviews with NFL teams. That, mixed in with the influence of his father, are said to be the big factors in why he still sits on the board.

This could either be a huge mistake by several NFL franchises or a lucky guess. One person who feels for Shedeur, though, is Dwyane Wade.

The Miami Heat legend began by talking about the shadow Shedeur has to follow in his life on the latest edition of his podcast. “Shedeur has one of the biggest images in the world in his dad,” he stated. The NBA Hall of Famer then compared that to his upbringing.

“I grew up, obviously loving my dad, but the images I saw…I saw weakness.” Fortunately, Wade grew up in Chicago, so he did get to see “Michael Jordan flying through the air,” as a symbol of strength.

So when Wade sees Shedeur refusing to change any parts of his personality, he admires that. In his mind, Shedeur isn’t displaying weakness like Wade’s father did, but the strength of his Hall of Fame football dad.

“I love the fact that Shedeur has stayed Shedeur,” he stated. Wade added that the former Colorado Buffalo is “very good at football” and will eventually “rise to the top” despite the media trying to slander his name.

This wasn’t the first time Wade mentioned MJ as a father figure

Wade’s support of Sheduer comes from his own troubled childhood growing up in Chicago. His father didn’t inspire him the way he needed to be, so he turned to sports for that inspiration. Michael Jordan became that guy for him, so much so that he even recalled the moment he mentally replaced his father with His Airness.

“I was like ‘That’s who I wanna be like now. Move over, Dad. Move out the way, Pops,’” Wade said on an old episode of Making Space. “Once I saw Michael Jordan, and just his grace… just the way he stayed in the air… and they were winning. Once the Bulls won a championship in 1990-91, I felt like a winner.”

It’s not like D-Wade hated his father. Heck, he even gave him a shout-out during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Yet, Dwyane is still, at times, that boy trying to find his way in Chicago, looking for anyone to provide him a spark with life. His life could have taken a dramatic turn. Fortunately, the game of basketball saved him.

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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