It is no easy task to become an NBA player, especially when the odds aren’t in your favor. Heat legend Dwyane Wade didn’t have a clear runway to achieve his dreams of playing basketball. Players nowadays, such as WNBA star Angel Reese, have more tools to accomplish their goals. Wade highlights those differences and how his experience was different than hers.
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At first glance, Wade’s appearance screams wealth. He has become a huge fashion mogul among designer brands and lives a life of luxury. However, it took many years of hard work and struggle for him to reach this stage in his life.
Wade grew up in Chicago — not in the beautiful downtown landscape, but in the inner city. Throughout his youth, his surroundings exposed him to gang violence, drugs and the dark side of life.
It wasn’t an easy situation to navigate, but he made it through. During an October 2024 appearance on Reese’s Unapologetically Angel podcast, he shed light on how troubling his childhood truly was.
“It was rough,” Wade said. “Me and my family grew up very poor. We knew what we knew, and we made poor look good.”
Wade’s backstory came as a new revelation to Reese. She currently plays for the Chicago Sky, which is in Wade’s hometown. But her lifestyle in the city is significantly different than his was.
While he was growing up, Wade and his family didn’t let their situation weigh them down. They persevered to make the best out of their circumstances.
In the process, Dwyane saw the NBA as a way to save his family from poverty. He eventually made it a reality, and the rest is history. However, he holds on tightly to everything his childhood has taught him.
Wade doesn’t want to relive his childhood
Wade learned plenty of lessons during his childhood on the South Side of Chicago. He is grateful for everything he experienced, which shaped him into the man he is today. Although he has gratitude for certain elements of the struggle, he never wants to experience it again.
“I just felt out of control,” Wade said. “But my thoughts were different. I was, you know, thinking of a better life.”
The Hall of Famer learned patience, which has helped him tremendously in his life. His work ethic comes from his troubled childhood, which pushed him to find a way out of the neighborhood. All those experiences are now memories, which Wade will never have to go through again.
