“How did this happen? You know what I’m saying? Like I was just… a couple years
ago I was just, I had three scholarship offers. And now I’m standing up on that stage and
I’m a finals MVP. At this moment, I’m the best player in the world.”
Before Dwyane Wade would become a 3 time NBA champion with the Miami Heat, including an NBA Finals
MVP, a 13 time All-Star including an All-Star Game MVP, and an Olympic Gold Medalist for
USA Basketball
Before he would hit game winners like this:
And oh yeah, this:
And give us dunks like this:
Most consider Dwyane Wade one of the greatest, if not the greatest shooting guard of all
time, and many consider him one of the best players to ever step foot on a court, but
Dwyane Wade is much more than just his stats, D-Wade is a hero. He came from some of the
most unimaginably difficult circumstances. The same ones that many never make it out
of alive. He was raised in an environment so dark that it would have been easy to succumb
to that darkness. But Wade rose above it all and not only stepped toward the light, but
became the light. He had an incredible run at Marquette University and a legendary one
with the Miami Heat, but this story is about more than just a great basketball player,
it’s one of perseverance, hope and change. But like he said in one of his old Converse
commercials, even if he falls down 7 times, he’ll always stand up 8. I’m really so
excited to give you the full journey of my favorite basketball player of all time.
What’s going on good people in the comment section? I hope you’re having one Hecht
of a day, my name is Jeremy Hecht, and today I’ll be taking you through the life and
career of Dwyane Wade, prior to retirement. Dwyane recently played his last regular season
game for the Miami Heat, and we thought his legacy deserved a special remembrance, because
he is truly a special player, and more than that a special guy. If you’re new here,
I’m the LA host for this channel and the motto is get better with every video so let
me know how I did and who to cover next in the comments down below and I’ll try to
reply to as many people as possible. You might have seen my other videos on Zion Williamson
or Lil Nas X, and if not, check those out after you finish watching this one. I’ve
got a question for you though:
“What is the best gift that Dwayne bought his mom after his basketball success?“
Stick around until the end of the video to find out the answer, and I’ll see you after
the intro!
Dwyane Tyrone Wade was born on January 17, 1982 on the south side of Chicago, Illinois
to parents Jolinda and Dwyane Sr. When asked about the spelling, Wade told Esquire that
his grandmother felt that, that’s how the name should be spelled, so his father passed
it down to him.
JoLinda was a very young mother, having two children by the age of 18. But Wade was surrounded
by anything but hope as a child. He saw gang violence, police raids, dead bodies lying
near local garbage cans on multiple occasions, and even had the painful experience of witnessing
his mother on drugs. His parents separated when he was only 4 months old, divorcing shortly
afterwards. JoLinda won custody, moving their family to her mother’s home. But the move
didn’t solve many of their problems. JoLinda was addicted to drugs and alcohol and turned
to selling crack for extra money, even selling in front of a young Dwyane. He told ESPN
"I've seen the needles laying around the house. I've seen my mother shoot up before. I've
seen a lot of things my mother didn't even know I'd seen as a kid."
There were periods of time where Dwyane’s mother would disappear altogether for days
at a time. Dwyane and his grandmother would just wait at the door patiently, hopeful that
their loved one would return. At just 6 years old, police bust down the doors of their Chicago
home and searched Dwyane’s mother for substances.
“I never gave up on her. Never gave up on her. I never blamed her. Because that was
her life. That was her journey, her path. Without that path I’m not who I am today.”
When Wade was 8, his older sister Tragil told him that they were going to the movies, but
in reality, she was moving him in with his father, in a neighborhood close by. His father
was an army sergeant living with a new woman. The family moved to Robbins, Illinois a year
later. While Wade didn’t see his mother for 2 years, she was struggling. She was a
drug tester, who basically tested out street drugs to see if they were safe for people
to use before dealers sold them to customers. But that lead to her hospitalization and near
death after mistakenly taking LSD. She was arrested for possession of crack with intent
to sell shortly afterwards and was locked up in Cook County Jail where she served 23
months in prison. At 10 years old Wade was speaking to his mom through the glass.
With all of the turmoil surrounding his family life and upbringing, Dwyane needed an escape.
And he found it through sports. He stayed out of the streets and kept himself busy on
the court and the field. His parents took him to the basketball court at their local
park, where he began playing. But Wade says that his older sister is the person who really
helped steer him in the right direction. Being from Chicago, Wade would study Michael Jordan
and hoped to make his game something like MJ’s one day. In a 2005 article from the
Washington Post, Helen Bibbs, the woman whose apartment window gave her a clear view of
the basketball hoop on top of Wade’s father’s garage, says that for about a decade, her
and her husband would wake up every morning to the sound of Dwyane dribbling.
Bibbs was one of many neighbors who would complain about the late night and early morning
ball sessions between Dwyane Sr. and Jr., saying:
It would start early in the morning and it would go until late evening. Sometimes it
would go away -- and you would assume they went to the community center. They had that
basketball going all of the time." Dwyane Sr. pushed Wade to be the best player
he could be. Wade played summer league games at the Blue Island Rec Center where his dad
was his coach for many seasons growing up. But if there were careless mistakes made during
games, Sr. would give a lesson at their home court of how Jr. could improve for next time.
Wade said: "He taught me the game, what I needed to know
to win games, my toughness on the court came from him knocking me down and not picking
me up... He was one of the biggest influences on me. He put the ball in my hands. He played
all day and all night, and I wanted to, too." It was in eighth or ninth grade that Wade
finally beat his father in a game of basketball. Wade says it was the toughest win he’s ever
had and whenever Wade had a chance for the win, Sr. would foul him on every shot.
Originally, he found more success through football though, as a receiver attending Oak
Lawn Richards High School. He was playing at the sophomore level for his first two years
of basketball while his stepbrother Demetris McDaniel was leading the varsity team in scoring.
Wade says that he could have probably made the NFL but McDaniel says he influenced his
younger brother to switch over to basketball. Wade barely made the varsity basketball team
as a junior, but practiced his game every day to earn his spot in the starting roster.
His father and step mother were also going through marital problems at the time and the
fighting got to Wade. In high school, Wade met his first and only girlfriend, Siohvaughn
Funches. He often stayed at her place to avoid the turmoil at home. She went to college a
year before him so he would talk to her on the phone all the time to stay connected.
“When I was young, when I first started playing it was my father. My dad was the one
who gave me the ball and said “hey you gonna do this.” And once I got to highschool,
it was actually my assistant coach in high school his name was Gary Adams.”
Wade’s assistant coach told him that if he wanted to get better, then he would have
to be in the gym every day in the summer. Wade cites Gary as the reason why he began
to love putting in work at the gym. But Wade hit a growth spurt that summer, gaining 4
inches before his junior year, that lead to an increase in minutes. From there, Wade took
off, averaging 20.7 points per game and 7.6 rebounds per game. The next season he was
averaging 27 and 11, setting school records for points and steals in a season. And while
he was dominating in the AAU circuits and at his high school, when colleges found out
that Wade was struggling with his tests scores, many of them backed out on their initial offers.
So even with stats like his, Wade was only recruited by three college teams. Illinois,
DePaul and Marquette University.
Wade chose to attend Marquette. But due to not meeting academic requirements, and failing
his ACT, Wade wasn’t allowed to play in his first year at the school. But he was allowed
to practice, so he worked not only on his game, but on his grades and went to see a
tutor. He also took drama and public speaking courses in college so that he would be able
to communicate better in front of large audiences. Wade was prepping for superstardom but hadn’t
even stepped on the court yet. But it was probably hard to focus on school because at
the time, his mother was either on the run from the law or serving time in jail. During
his sophomore year, his mother said that she was on the path to changing her life and would
be attending services at a Chicago Church. But when Wade came home from college for Christmas,
he found out that his mother’s words were not the complete truth. She was ready to begin
a new life, but she was also heading back to jail to serve a 14-month sentence. It was
on October 14th, 2001 that Jolinda’s life would change forever. Her daughter Tragil
picked her up from an abandoned warehouse and took her directly to the church. The preacher
called her name and told her to read 2 Timothy 3:5
“It said, ‘Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.’
And from there, she’s been clean ever since. But Wade was dealing with the new-found struggles
and rewards of being a parent himself while at Marquette. He had a child with his long-time
girlfriend while still in college. Wade had to take out a loan just so he could afford
diapers. The three lived in a small apartment together while he continued to study and work
on his game.
Seeing what his mother went through as a kid made Wade decide to remain clean. He never
smoked or drank and didn’t get any tattoos growing up. Under his father’s rules, the
kids weren’t allowed to wear earrings and even weren’t allowed to wear hats. So they
definitely weren’t allowed to get tattoos. Wade recalls one day when he actually went
into the tattoo parlor to get a tat of a basketball hoop in an act of rebellion before immediately
walking right back out.
But Wade focused on his dreams of creating a better life for himself through basketball
and worked on his game every day. It was one day at practiced that changed everything for
Wade. He drove towards the baseline and one of his teammates stepped in to take a charge:
“…and I just took off over the top of him. As I'm taking off, he's trying to fall
back, and I just go over the top of him and dunk. I mean, I surprised myself. Everybody
in the gym was like, Holy sh*t! It was in the school paper the next day, it was talked
about all over campus, and what it did was just make everybody continue to keep my name
in their minds for next season when I'd take that court.
It was in Wade’s first eligible season that he took over. He scored close to 18 points
per game averaging nearly 2 and a half steals, 6.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, leading
Marquette to a 26-7 record, their best since the 1993-94 season. The next season, Wade
averaged even better stats scoring 21.5 points per game, and leading the Golden Eagles to
their first and only Conference USA championship along with a Final Four appearance during
the March Madness Tournament. Wade’s mother was released from Prison just in time to witness
her son win the championship conference championship, watching him play for the first time in 5
years.
During the tournament, he put up numbers, making a name for himself nationally. He had
a triple double against the top seeded Kentucky, making him only the 4th player EVER in tournament
history to do that. Wade’s jersey has since been retired by Marquette and currently hangs
in the rafters.
And with all of the attention on him, Wade wasn’t giving up his shot and entered his
name into the 2003 NBA Draft. Wade was a part of what some argue is the greatest draft class
of all time, ironically being drafted after two of his future teammates, LeBron and Chris
Bosh.
“The Miami heat select Dwyane Wade from Marquette university.”
Wade brought basketball back to Miami and quickly made his mark on the league as an
elitre player. He went on to win 3 NBA championships, one with Shaq and 2 with his friends LeBron
and Bosh. He also won an Olympic Gold Medal for Team USA, and solidified himself as one
of the most unique talents the league has ever seen. Wade holds the franchise records
in Miami for points per game, field goals made, assists, steals, games played and free
throws made. But he has also given back so much to his community. 10% of his original
NBA salary went back to a church in Chicago.
Dwyane also has a beautiful family with his wife Gabrielle Union who he actually met during
a SuperBowl party. The two got married in 2014 and have an adorable daughter together.
Wade also has 3 other children who he takes care of.
Most recently, Wade went on a farewell tour swapping jerseys with all of the NBA’s current
best, and I’m just glad he is getting the respect he deserves.
Wade’s mother Jolinda became a deliverance minister and Dwyane even bought her a church
of her own.
And there’s the answer to your question from the beginning of the video.
“What I felt… and what I seen inside her… was a mother who loved her kids. A mother
who was looking and wanted someone to help her.”
In one of her sermons, she told a congregation of 10,000 people:
“I was a walking dead woman. My story is in the Bible—they just use different names.
God’s grace and mercy followed me on the streets. That’s the only reason I’m here.
All I did was make a decision to say yes to the Lord. Your yes is powerful, baby!”
Wade inspired me throughout my short basketball career, I had his shoes, the hexpad he wore
and his jersey and just how genuine he was off the court let me know that it was okay
to be successful and still be a good person. So D-Wade, on the off-chance that you’re
watching this. Thank you for everything and congrats on an incredible career. But I know
the best is yet to come.
Wade told Esquire in a 2010 interview:
My time in Miami will come and go. There's going to be another guy come in, but that
fan stays the same. There's going to be fans in the arena now watching me who're going
to be here thirty years from now watching someone else.
And that may be true, but the fans who got to witness Wade play, will always remember
how magical number 3 was on that court.
But as for the rest of the story, we’ll have to wait and see. Because this is before
they were famous. Thanks for watching, be sure to hit that subscribe button and turn
the notification bell on so that you don’t miss a single video. I’m Jeremy Hecht, I
hope you have one Hecht of a day, Dream Good, Live Better, and I’ll see you in the next
video.