NBA athletes who retire generally find life to be easier than it was while they were active. Not so much with Dwyane Wade. For The Atlantic, D. Watkins traces Wade’s path from South Side Chicago to the heights of success, at which point the athlete’s real work began—on himself. An uncommonly vulnerable and forthright profile.
Growing up, Wade saw competing versions of what a man was supposed to be. He saw men putting their hands on women, men fighting each other, men drawing guns. He also saw his own father get up at five in the morning every day to take the train to make deliveries for a printing company. Wade Sr. demanded that the kids use ma’am and sir in the house. He made them clean the bathrooms and wash the dishes. Wade Sr. took pride in providing for his family. But Wade never recalls hearing him say the words I love you. “It was a lot of tough love as a Black man in America,” Wade told me. “At that time, wasn’t a lot of hugs going around for a lot of young boys in the community that I had.”
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