MIAMI _ The Miami Heat's "L3GACY Celebration," the three-day tribute to retired franchise icon Dwyane Wade, finds something different now about Wade. His legacy has changed. It has grown, and in a way even he could not have imagined.
Fate challenged Wade and his family to show who they are, and what they showed was love, unequivocal love. What they showed was the potential to influence thinking, soften prejudices and foment understanding _ to remind us how much bigger than basketball the real world is.
Wade had a baby boy he named Zion. Today that baby boy is a 12-year-old who identifies as she/her and is called Zaya.
No amount of fame or wealth _ and Wade and actress wife Gabrielle Union have lots of both _ guarantees how a couple will handle such a thing. But the Wades provide a masterclass in parenting here, not with mere "tolerance," a buzzword for the lowest form of begrudging acceptance, but with a warm and open embrace of their child's journey, and, by extension, that of everyone in the LGBTQ community.
The 17 years we have known Wade have given Heat fans countless reasons including three NBA championships to love him. The past week has given Miami, and the world, a reason to admire him in a way that make sports seem small.
Miami needed Wade.
The LGBTQ family _ especially transgender youth struggling for acceptance _ needs him, too. Gays and lesbians enjoy a broad acceptance still eluding most transgender folks. Pete Buttegieg is running for president, and his gayness refreshingly did not come up once in Wednesday night's Democratic debate.
Wade retired from the NBA after last season, but he is very active once again as an advocate of understanding and equal rights for all.
It began when the child got home and told her folks, "Hey so I want to talk to you guys. I think going forward, I'm ready to live my truth."
It did not shock the family. Almost a year ago, last April, Zaya (then still Zion) and his mother took part in the Miami Beach Gay Pride parade. Dwayne wrote on Instragam beneath a photo, "We support each other with pride."
The family went public with the transgender news last week as Dwyane appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Good Morning America." (Zaya is not "becoming" a girl, by the way. She has chosen to reveal what she was born to be).
"Once Zion came home and said 'Call me Zaya,' and, 'I'm ready to take on this,' I looked at her and said. 'You are a leader, and it's our opportunity to allow you to be a voice'," Wade told DeGeneres. "Right now it's through us because she's 12, but eventually, it will be through her."
Said Ellen: "I think every parent should be what you are being right now."
Gabrielle posted a video on Twitter with Zaya driving a golf cart, her father beside her.
Zaya: "What's the point of being put on Earth if you're trying to be something you're not?"
Wade: "Even when people are being mean?"
Zaya: "Yeah. Even through hard times, you gotta push through. I feel like it's worth it when you reach that point of looking in the mirror and seeing ... yourself."
Zaya and the family, amid overwhelming support, already have received much negative backlash, because social media can be an anonymous cesspool. A rapper named Boosie Badazz posted a transphobic rant he might or might not be smart enough to have instantly regretted.
Cynics also might wonder how tough Zaya Wade will really have it in a cocoon of family celebrity and wealth.
The point is the Wades have stepped forward and volunteered themselves as advocates for the vast majority of transgender youth who don't feel the love and acceptance Zaya has but instead feel the scorn that has made LGBTQ children No. 1 among all homeless youth in America, and sees suicide rates tragically high.
Somewhere out there a father who wears a Wade No. 3 jersey has not handled that same gender identity talk with his own child very well under his own roof. Wonder what he's thinking now?
"Will this open eyes?" said ESPN's Israel Gutierrez on Highly Questionable. "Of course. It has to."
It takes on added significance because because Wade is of the NBA and sports world, which continue a sprawling bastion of machismo that makes his open embrace of the LGBTQ community refreshing. And important.
"Whenever there's a professional sports figure behind an LGBTQ cause it becomes news because its so unusual," says Steve Rothaus, who for many years covered LGBTQ issues for the Miami Herald. "When someone like Dwyane Wade steps up as ally of the community, it's a big deal. It's groundbreaking. Damned meaningful.
"They didn't have to take this route (of openness)," Rothaus added. "You can't overstress the importance of something like this because of the influence they have in the greater world. They have come out as a family (in their support). They all came out together."
This is the Heat icon who gets his "L3GACY Celebration" weekend at the downtown bayside arena:
"The Flashback" Friday at 8 p.m., a video review and discussion of Wade's contribution to the NBA, the Heat and South Florida. (Including Wade appearing in a new Rock Ross video called "Season Ticket Holder").
Saturday's No. 3 jersey retirement at halftime of the Cavaliers game.
And Sunday's 3:30 p.m. documentary screening of "D.Wade: Life Unexpected," a full-length doc filmed during the past 10 years.
At first blush I thought a three-day event was a bit over the top, even for Wade.
But his legacy has grown.
Dwyane, Zaya and their family have made it easier for gender identity to be discussed across the country, not with closed minds but with open hearts.
So thank you, again, Dwyane Wade. This time, for much more than basketball.
