NBA legend Dwyane Wade is just as comfortable discussing fatherhood as he is on the basketball court.
Sitting down in the TODAY greenroom before heading to the studio to discuss his new podcast and Oscar-nominated documentary, Wade is all smiles as he talks about the children he and his wife, Gabrielle Union, are raising: Zaire, 22, Zaya, 16, Xavier, 10, and Kaavia, 5. The basketball star is also the legal guardian of his nephew, Dahveon Morris, 21.
In the years between welcoming between Zaire and Kaavia, Wade says he learned an important lesson about parenthood. "When you don't know nothing, just love," he says. "You've got to feel love. You've got to feel support. And then we can work everything else out."
We're not focused on the hecklers on the sideline."
Wade is enjoying being a father to a young daughter. "We dance. We sing. We play Barbie all the time. We do all the princess things. I actually let her put makeup on me, whatever she wants to do. I'm that dad."
Wade's older daughter, Zaya, publicly came out as transgender in 2020 when she was 12 years old. The family fully supported her in the process and ended up moving from Florida to California in part to protect Zaya's safety.
"I was blessed with Zaya [as a daughter], but I got Zaya at 12," he says, differentiating his experience with his girls. "In terms of a father-daughter connection, I got that later with Zaya. But with Kaavia, it's been from birth, and she's so different than Zaya. It's not even close."
Setting the example
Not every NBA superstar, or even every father for that matter, talks about being a parent as openly and thoughtfully as Wade. He points to LeBron James, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony as examples of other NBA dads he admires because of the way they make the most out of every moment with their families. "I know how they are with their kids, how their kids are with them, how much they admire them, how much they look up to them," he says.
Wade knows that other parents may be watching him, saying it's essential for fathers to have someone they can identify with. "I try to speak loud and proud because I have the platform and microphone to do it," he says, adding that he's trying to "lead by example the life that I know and the father I want to be."
Though he's open with his own experiences, Wade tries to avoid being prescriptive because he knows every family is different.
"I'm in love with my kids," he says. "To me, nothing comes before them in that space. And so I'm trying to show how much I'm in love with them and how this is going to allow them to be able to grow and evolve and be successful."
Ignoring the haters
As a public figure, Wade takes a lot of heat, and his family has also been on the receiving end of negative commentary, especially Zaya.
He tells his family to ignore the "hecklers" who are expressing their opinions and considers it his duty to help Zaya navigate this space. Wade doesn't personally know what it's like to be 12 years old and "thrust in the spotlight about your sexuality, your gender, you as a person being talked about the way that my daughter has," he says, "but she's a straight A student, she's a 4.0 student, we're doing college visits, she's a model. Life is going for her, and we're moving, so we're not focused on the hecklers on the sideline."
He adds proudly, "That's my girl."
Moving into 2024, Wade says he wants to focus on "getting rid of the hate and bringing it into love."
Again stressing that every family has a uniqueway of operating, Wade says that in his case, "I have a family who are fighters, fighting for the life that we want to have, but also fighting for others that don't have the voice that we have."
