Dwyane Wade once recalled how his father not buying him a pair of Jordans helped him during a moment of tension. He had been disappointed before, so when awaiting LeBron James and his decision, Wade didn’t call the race too soon. In fact, he even thought about getting a new third player if LeBron ended up elsewhere.
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Even though Wade has openly said that he, LeBron, and Chris Bosh once met to discuss pairing up, he still didn’t know if it was going to happen. Wade is a very superstitious guy. So, he didn’t want to cash any checks before they came through.
“You don’t know until you see it,” Wade said in an interview. “It has to actually happen. And so, yeah, we made a decision on July 4. I didn’t tell anybody but my wife until July 7. I told people on July 7 after I signed, like my close-knit group. We kept it very, very, very tight. But at the end of the day, here’s why I really didn’t say anything. ’Cause I ain’t saying nothing until it happens.”
It’s a good mantra to live by. Sometimes we can get our hopes up too soon, and then the unthinkable happens, and our hopes vanish. Wade wanted to make sure that this didn’t happen with him and LeBron
Furthermore, Wade used a past disappointment as a lesson for why he was going to wait for the final announcement.
“I’ve been disappointed a lot! As a kid, I grew up like, ‘Oh, my dad ’bout to bring these Jordans!’ And he brought me some Pro Wings! I got some Jordaches! I’ve been disappointed.”
Wade had no idea if LeBron was going to follow through and sign with the Heat. That, paired with the life lesson he learned as a kid, deterred him from believing it was going to happen before it did.
Additionally, Wade said that LeBron didn’t talk to him in the final days leading up to the announcement. This meant that he had to sit by the TV and watch the program just like everyone else.
“He went dark 23 on me!”
Wade was even ready to find a third player to form a Big 3, in case LeBron changed his mind.
“And if it didn’t happen, I have to figure out a way to shift gears and find another third.”
Despite all of the tension, though, Wade didn’t feel any butterflies while awaiting LeBron’s big decision. This is because of his life mantra of waiting until things happen. Also, his father’s Jordan debacle seemed to scar him for life and make him realize that nothing in life is guaranteed.
All in all, it must be fun times to look back on for Dwyane Wade. It’s a period of his life that he’s said he loves to talk about, mostly because it was such an interesting time for him and sports media. Wade kind of had “The Decision” spoiled for him before it aired. But at the same time, he didn’t want to tell anyone that. It must have been an interesting dynamic for him to deal with.
