Dwyane Wade is no stranger to doing the unexpected.
Think back to the summer of 2012. After not re-signing with Jordan Brand, Wade partnered with a then-little known Chinese apparel brand called Li-Ning. Fast forward nearly a decade later and the Miami Heat legend now has a lifetime deal with Li-Ning while his “Way of Wade” imprint boasts a roster of players including D’Angelo Russell and Udonis Haslem.
“My route here was unconventional,” Wade told the Miami Herald on Friday, “so I’m not going to be conventional now.”
So it should come as no surprise that when Wade came to Miami to promote his new memoir “Dwyane,” he celebrated like a man who, in his own words, is unconventional: with an immersive exhibition honoring his legacy. Curated by Wade’s longtime friend and creative director Calyann Barnett, “DWYANE Miami” allowed fans to relive some of the #NBA75 honoree’s most iconic moments. And as customary whenever Wade returns home, the city made sure he felt the love: the drinks were named “Dwyane” and “59th & Prairie;” the No. 3 jerseys were everywhere; and Trina a.k.a. the queen of Miami stamped him as a true Miami-Dade County legend.
“My love for the city will never ever fade, never ever go anywhere because Miami has always been true to me,” Wade told the audience during the evening’s discussion portion.
As much love as Wade has for Miami, his journey can no longer be defined by what he did while wearing the No. 3. He has become a multihyphenate in his post-playing days — hosting a game show, owning the Utah Jazz, pushing the boundaries of Black fatherhood — so much so that referring to Wade as “retired” seems almost disrespectful. In between discussing “Dwyane” and viewing the exhibit, Wade chatted with the Miami Herald about everything from putting the memoir together to Big 3 hate to changing Black people’s perspective of Utah.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
The Herald: You’re from Chicago. You grew up watching Jordan. Why the switch from Jordan to Li-Ning?
Growing up watching Jordan is not just watching him as a basketball player. You also get a chance to watch him as a businessman. And so you see some of the moves he made and you want, you want to do some of those moves, right? And so to be able to be a part of the [Jordan] brand and, um, live out that dream was phenomenal, but to be able to try to go off and build my own, it’s kind of like, you know how I’ve always done things. I’ve always had to make my own way and, but not reinvent the wheel. You know? I mean, obviously Jordan has done this and has already gave us a blueprint. So to be able to start my own brand was something that was important for me.
Where does that willingness to go against the grain come from? Is that natural or did someone teach you that?
I don’t know. To me, I don’t look at it as going against the grain. I’m okay with taking steps I’m scared to take. Everything isn’t for everybody. And I think sometimes the world is cookie cutter. It’s like, “Hey, you do this, they did this. So you have to do this.” I didn’t grow up that way. Like my, my route here was unconventional, so I’m not going to be conventional now.
Speaking of that unconventional route, I know one of the big surprises, at least for me personally, was you hosting the game show “The Cube.” I read that you were kind of surprised that you even got the opportunity. How did that go, and what’s next from that?
It went great because I did something I didn’t have any experience in and I never thought I would do. Not only did I gain a great experience out of it, I thought all the contestants gained a great experience out of it. So, you know, you go through life, man, and sometimes we say, “No, we will never,” or sometimes you don’t have the confidence in your ability to be able to do something. But because I was scared to do it is the reason I had to do it, you know, not allowing something like that to box me into a corner. So I decided to do it. And I said, “If I suck at it, at least I tried it.” We had some success. So hopefully I can continue to do it more and allow that to branch off into other things.
Switching gears to the ownership stake with the Jazz. I know that you have a relationship with Donovan Mitchell. How big of a role did that relationship play in purchasing that ownership stake?
I mean, that’s a separate piece. The ownership is a little bit more on the business side. My relationship with Don is more of a big brother, mentor, someone who’s played the game before. So for me, it was more so of the Ryan Smith [ the new owner of the Jazz] component of it and then getting a chance to know the other individuals in the ownership group. That was important. So, to me, it’s about building and I felt I had a great opportunity at a young age to get into this space early, to learn this space, but also to start building for my next career. And so this is just one component of it, and this is just one chess move for me. And hopefully there’s many more to come.
I read in GQ that you want to come change Black people’s perspective of Utah. So convince me. Why Utah?
I can’t convince you. I’m not that good of a salesman. I think we got a lot of work to do. It just doesn’t happen because I become part of the ownership. So we have a lot of work to do in the state and the city. That’s what the Smith family is doing. That’s what so many other people in the community are doing. I think the biggest thing is we just have a very small percentage of minorities in Utah. It don’t seem to seem like it’s a great experience because we don’t even have a lot of data. we got a lot of things to build. We’ve got a lot of programming to change. Ryan and the Utah Jazz have done a great job of providing full ride scholarships for people of color in Utah. So we’re slowly trying to do things to expose Utah to minorities and minorities to Utah.
With Zaire recently being drafted to the Jazz’s G League team the Salt Lake City Stars, his route to the NBA has obviously been a bit different than yours. What advice have you given him?
The biggest thing from a playing side is be Zaire Wade. This notion that your father, your mother, your uncle or somebody in your family is great at something and you gotta be exactly like them because you choose to go down the same path is ridiculous. We all have our own journeys and our own paths in life. I want Zaire to be able to walk his own.
Speaking of parenting, you have set a great example for Black fathers in the way you’ve embraced Zaya and her journey in finding herself. Has parenting changed for you over time? Is parenting girls different than boys?
It’s all different, man. Every child is different, whether you’re a boy, whether you’re a girl. It’s not like, “Hey, I can parent boys like this. I can just parent girls like this.” It’s not that way. We all come in our own individual package and we all have individual instructions. It’s the parents’ job to be able to actually read those instructions and try to figure out to how to build a great human being. For me, it’s really trying to do a good job of learning and understanding my kids and just listening, watching, observing actually caring about them and their wants and needs and not just what I wanted or what I need. I don’t know if that’s revolutionary. I don’t know if that’s what everyone does. That’s what I do and that’s what works for my family.
So let’s get to the book. Talk to me about that process of condensing your life into 300 or so pages.
Yeah, no, you can’t do it. I couldn’t condense my entire life. But this was just a portion of my career, my life that I wanted to speak on and I thought it was important to talk about. Then going back and seeing how sport correlates to life. I went back and talked a lot about my childhood, my life and just showing you how it all correlates. But no it’s just a small portion of it.
What was the most difficult part of putting the book together?
Picking the photos. We had two million photos or more to try to narrow down. Finding the right photos that speaks to not only you, but could possibly speak to the people who are going to buy these books, hopefully, who are going to look at these photos. Trying to, you know, to be a prophet and think what they’re going to get out of these photos. That’s a difficult process. So hopefully we captured that.
I know the Big 3 takes a up a portion of the book. When you guys made that decision, obviously it caused a lot of hate. How much of that hate was based in the fact that these were three black men making a decision for themselves?
You know how it is, man, when it come to change. sometimes you gotta pull people kicking and screaming. That was a change right there for the league. That had never happened that way with three players of that caliber. So it was like AI man. When he came in, he had the cornrows, he had the tattoos, he had the leg sleeves and he got hate for it. But now everyone else can do it. Same thing with us, we got hate for it so everybody else could do it.
Obviously I can’t let you leave without asking about the Heat. You went to AAA, or formerly AAA. Wait, do you still call it the AAA?
It’s the FTX. They paid the money. They pay the bills up in there. You better call it FTX [laughs].
Ok FTX. What was that experience like? I’m sure it has been well over a year.
It was great. It was like, I was there yesterday. I spent so much time in that arena. You could change the name. You could change the paint. The building is the same. And so immediately when you walk in, the history comes back. They were even wearing the mashup jersey. That’s all our legacy and our history. And so all of it comes back. It was just great to be in there. I had a great career. I gave everything I had to the game and to still be respected from the fan base, the ownership group and the entire team — that’s love. That goes way beyond anything. We love each other. It was great to show that love back.
I saw Spo fake like he was doing your classic jump celebration.
I was hoping he did it. I was hoping he did it.
Any expectations or predictions for the Heat after checking them out in-person?
Nah, I ain’t got none. That ain’t for me. I ain’t on TNT so I can’t answer that [laughs].
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