The Best of the Wine Down

Published Mar 13, 2024, 10:00 AM

A special opportunity to listen to the best of Dwyane's behind the scenes podcast called the Wine Down. Dwyane and his friend Bob Metelus discuss a wide range of things including Dwyane's intense competition with Kobe Bryant, what Shaq did to help him become a superstar, how he figured out how to play with LeBron James, dealing with becoming the leader of his family at a young age and moment that motivated Dwyane to become one of the best players of all-time. 

For more of the "Wine Down" podcast check out Dwyane YouTube page - www.youtube.com/@DwyaneWade

 

 

What's up, everybody. This is Dwayne Way. Listen everyone who's listening, who's taking time out of their days, thank you for listening to the Why Podcast. I've been getting people from all around the world everywhere that I go. I've been telling me that they're tuning in, So I thank you so much for tuning in. We have many more guests to come, but right now we have a little break in the White Podcast.

But we're not going to leave you guys alone.

We're going to make sure that you guys have some content and I shoot another show called the wind Down. I shoot this in my office with my good friend Bob and tell us that you guys here in the White Podcast. We both sit and we have evergreen conversations about everything dealing with life, by dealing with fashion, by dealing with marriage, by dealing with fatherhood, dealing with things in life.

That we all have to deal with.

And so we put together some clips, some reels from the wind Down. We hope you guys enjoy it. We will be back very soon with the White Podcast, but please enjoyed this other green conversation on the wind Down. And I can't wait you guys to see who our next guest is going to be on the White podcast. Let's start this podcast off.

Can you is that close enough?

As you've gotten older into this world, do you feel like, what was the biggest change you've noticed since you've gotten to that forty year old age now? And physically? So what was that change like as a man in the aspect of like just getting up just when you tell the twenty year old person when you turn forty, this is look out for this ship.

Yeah, you don't believe it. Now, let's let's the on the ones out. We got all the technology out here, get all the things. But I think I've done it twice because an athlete. As an athlete, I got older and so I had to that when I used to listen when I take when I take you baseline, all I need is one step and I'm taking off. Then he got the point where I needed that one step and half then the two step.

Then I couldn't take off. And so I felt myself aging as.

An athlete, Right, I know what that explosive leg feel like and how much closer I gotta go?

Right?

And so now in life, I'm on this side of forty, I'm turning forty two. And I feel it like I feel the like you're not.

Like I'm not immortal anymore. Like I feel like I feel human. Like you know, he's like watching and they start bleeding. He's like, now I feel human.

Now do you remember the day that happened? But I keep is there a moment that you can go back to? It says the fuck, No, I can't. I don't know.

It just it just happened. I just I tried to get out of a chair one day and it just occurred. That's me right now. I try to get out of and I was like, oh, like you know me, like excuse me, microphone.

You know when up, man, you start getting older baby, like that first.

Right right right right?

Yeah. So when I hit that level, like then I started taking my body seriously.

And so as a group as man and you know what I'm saying, we all try to build this like we're building a brotherhood that is pretty cool.

And so even in.

That, like I used to lift weights a lot because that's what as an athlete, that's what that's what we did. We left weights a lot, and so even in that, I was like, all right, I need something different. And then my brother was doing yoga right, And I was like, dang, I don't want to do yoga. I don't want to do that. It's uncomfortable, it's hot. He was doing hot yoga six in the morning.

I want to do that.

But I gave it a try, and then it maysta of getting a try, Like I felt gains over the course of doing doing yoga, not just obviously physical gains, but I got mental gains. And so like it's just playing a different You just got to learn how to play a different game with your body, you know, And you know, I think same. The same effort that I put in as an athlete who wanted to be able to take those hits and be able to have that first step, I got to take those same initiatives and in this life when it comes to my health, and for everybody out there who do now, I want to check themselves out because we all are scared to see behind the cart. We'll go get I go get Mann's and page like effect you, I do all the things, right, I go get we go, get massages, get scralled, haircut, you get whatever your thing is. But you will not go check the inside of your body. And that's the that's the engine of the car. Card don't run without the engine, baby.

And so you got to go check it. Not just you gotta get not just get all change, you gotta check the whole thing.

So I'm just on that journey of life where I'm like, oh, I want to feel good as I get older, and I want to do all the things I want to be able to do where it starts on the inside.

So that journey is now, I'm right now with you.

I gave so much to the game that when I got to that fifteenth season and Bob was there, you know, after we played we played Philly in the playoffs, and so I get traded back to Miami, you know, from the Calves, and we ended up getting in the playoffs and we played Philly, and so Game two had a great game. I had that game. I had that game that she wanted, the old dude that come off the bench. You know, I'm a hero, you know what I mean.

I had that.

I was on the roll and then swats swap and we were in Game five and the game was and the seriously all was over and I was just dribbling the ball. And as I was dribbling the ball, I just I just remembered that my first NBA game was right here on this court. I played against Allen iverson Philadelphia. I Toober twenty eight, two thousand and three, and I was like, man, this to me feels poetic enough. I ended well, I started it. I'm done, and so we went off into I went off into that mindset that I was done. I feel like I gave everything to it. But as I talked about, someone always told me, when you feel like you're done, play one more year. And so a lot of things have to go right for me before I even decided to play that one more year, and a lot of conversations needed to happen, And so I felt like I gave everything to it, and that last year I did was really I didn't. It was no moment where I was like, no, I need to come back, no matter how well I thought I was playing like, I was like, no, I want to go do something else. Like I've mastered this as good as I can. Now it's time for me to go and try to build something and master something else, right, and so never never, I don't have no ill will about nothing about the game, even the money that everybody's making, even you know, like for real, like people think you a hater because you didn't get that or that person got that. I've released it all that hatred if I ever if it's ever creeped in my body about what someone else have that I don't.

So I'm cool with driving my little car, my little.

Lane, and I'm at peace with that. But everything else it's chaos. Having a ball with seven seconds left in the garden on the road and you got to hit this game winner, and it's chaos. And as we talked about, how do you calm yourself down? How do you calm your nerves in a moment of chaos? And so we talk about the game of basketball. People say, do you miss playing? No, I don't miss playing the game of basketball, but I miss those moments of chaos. I miss those moments where I can control my heart rate, well, I control my mind, and I also control everybody in this arena because I don't know what's about to happen. I miss those moments because I can't get those moments no matter why I go, Like, people celebrate me around the world, but I can't. I can't get the ball in the garden at the top of the key knowing I'm about to shoot this step back.

You know what I'm saying. How do you center yourself without making it all about you?

That was what I wrote. How do you center yourself but not make it all about you? That's playing with Lebron James. You got to know how to center yourself, but you also got to know that you can't make it about you. You know you're not going to have the success that you want to have, that you crave, that you stay up every night for. And so the goal for me, and I put it on my vision board for twenty twenty four.

Is that right?

And how do I how do I continue to understand that message?

And how I continue to do that?

Like in everything that we're building as a family, that you're building with businesses, all these things, how do you center yourself and understand that me centering myself is exactly what is needed, is what everyone needs. But I ain't gonna make it all about me.

How do you do that?

Everybody can't do that right, And so that's one of the journeys, and that's to go And that's one of the hardest things to do is to be the center of attention.

When I make it about you. That's real.

So I put that on my vision board. You know something that I want to continue to try to learn how to do. And I've done it before, but it's a constant, constant journey in my life that it continues to show itself.

And so this is my journey as a forty one year old man, is how do I do that?

I'm still in that. I'm still in that.

He said, I'm still in that.

I'm still in that.

Are you like that?

I like that?

All right, don't put that on your T shirts. I'm using that. I'm using for my own brand.

Like that.

Did I say, Bob, if you had if the doctor told you have one week to live, how would you live it?

Remember this conversation?

Yeah?

And I said, would you live it like you live in it today? If he said you have one week to live? And he said no, So what are you waiting for?

Right?

What are we waiting for to live life the way that you will live it? If doc said you have one week to live, because you might not.

Even have that.

So to go back there and a question without getting so like dark and all that, It's like that's real, Like I live life that way, and anybody in the way of that for me, you in the way of my my path, my journey in this life that I get to get to and I don't know when in my I don't even know when my lifes are up. And so I got to get to it because I know that it hasn't stopped because the Big Guy keep putting me in these different rooms, in these different places, in these different spaces.

So that means it's more life. And so the my eyes open.

Baby, you're in the Hall of Fame fame. Yeah, how does that? It's crazy because you not always have a recap conversation a lot of times about being like this life. You're in the Hall of Fame and you're in the Hall of Fame with a class that's highly regarded. Like what does that feel like for you? Like looking back and you wake up every like you said, you wake up and you look at life and say you're just happy. You just hay by life. But that was the part of your life, being in the Hall of Fame.

Yeah, that was a big part.

So what does that feel like when you look back? And this every time I want to look back.

Man, it's the body of work, you know what I mean? Like anything that we do in life. If someone tells you that, you know you, let me take all your body of work and it's going to end up being in this exclusive club. And in basketball, the most exclusive club is the Hall of Fame. And so let me take your body of work and you're gonna end up in the most exclusive club in the sport that you dreamed of play. How does that support to feel? How do you feel? That is what I'm saying, Like, I don't know how it feels to really be in the Hall of Fame. I say the words, I write the tough down. But come on, my dude, this is the Hall of Fame. This is this is this is the Holy Girl, this is everything. This is you are one of the greatest to play this. You know how long this game been?

Around seventy five years? I got a tattooed.

And now we ain't like that was five years not play So now we're going into year what of the NBA that quick? So yeah, yeah, it really means something. But I think as life go on, as my family grows, as I get to see when my kids accomplished, and how I can you know, be someone that can be there, you know, and help them, you know, in their way of accomplishing. I will see what Hall of Fame really feels like. I think right now, I'm just like, it's it's so surreal right now that it don't make sense even though I can say it and I can go back and watch.

The speech that I can remember being there. Thank you very much. I wrote that I ain't in the business right nobody's speeches.

But but now also I would say on my end, just watching how you had a chance to be able with your daddy and your son.

Oh my dad, let me, can I get all love please?

So I was trying to I was trying to to come up with the idea to start my speak, like I waited till the last three months. And I was like, because it's like when I was in school, I waited to allows me to do my work because I got it done right, that's one.

Of the clock ticking baby.

So I waited to the last three months to start sitting down and putting together this this Hall of Fame speech. And I remember on my birthday, all right, well, I landed in Chicago from Paris.

I had my birthday trip from Paris, and I landed Chicago on my birthday.

And it hit me then what my speech should be about. It should be about Chicago. It should be about the beginning, right, it should be it get about what started it all. And so then I started from there, I wrote down, okay, on this day, you know what I mean, Like, I wrote that down in my notes.

And then from there I was like, well.

Who, so my dad, this doesn't happen without Danne Wade Singer, And so I based my speech around that. And if you see my speech, I started with my dad. I started acknowledging my dad and talking about how he introduced me to the game. And then I ended my speech with my dad, and I wanted to really, you know, this is my dad dream, just like it's.

My dream right, like we shared in his dream like and so that moment I thought, I was like, all right, how can and so? And I said that to say. I remember the day I was driving up to my home.

And it just clicked in my head. I was like, oh, I'm about to fuck my dad head up. I'm about to bring him on stage. At the end of my speech, it just I didn't even have no words. I knew what it was going to be about, and I knew what the ending was gonna be. So this entire time, I'm sitting here and I know that in three months that his life is about to change because everything we went through in life, everything he put into this, that moment was so big for him. Bro, that's his name going into Hall of Fame. He started that. Yeah, he was the first dwaange Wade. And so for me to be able to bring him on stage and walk into the Hall of Fame with them and give him that acknowledgement and give men the acknowledge men that they deserve, because we do get left out of a lot of stories. And it's not saying we're doing it to be in stories, but we do get left out a lot. And it's not saying that the ones that don't don't have the right to be in that story, like Okay, something happened, but the ones that are there, we left out a lot of stories.

Father's Day, we got to do better. You see these gifts anyway, Just send your father's on golf tournaments. Everybody, just stop buying.

Yes, I hate to see when father's they come up on TV versus when Mother's Day.

I'll be like, ain't this But for me like that was for the men.

That was for us.

And that's not a perfect relationship. That's a relationship that has been through a lot of shit. We've been through a lot. And so for all the fathers out there has had hard relationships with their kids, tough to figure you out to you too much like me, you two stuff, whatever you've had, that was a moment for all of us that that's a healing moment for my dad and I in front of the word world because we always, man, we needed to we want to hug our dad. Now you get to a point in life where nothing matters but the relationship with your parents are. They're still alive for these moments that you can create with these people who are just like you. And so for me, man, I just wanted to give my dad something that I knew that would be, you know, probably one of the most important things that I can do.

No house I can buy, no car I.

Can get them, nothing I can give them, but more than the acknowledgement in front of the world to say thank you, and the reason I'm set on the stage because not only you put the ball in my hand, but you put these other things inside of me.

And so yeah, that was a moment. It was a moment. Shout out to the dad, Shout out to my pops.

Man, hell dogs, I must switches who because your cold. Had some battles, but they were close. But I had some battles, like I remember you told the story about when you broke his nose.

Yeah, and when I broke his nose in All.

Star and he was like, yo, you like this ship right? But I've always had this this start or question. But the question has always been asked, like can I be friends and still compete and go at each other? Like you go at Code breaking his nose. You playing against Chris, You're playing against Broun, You're playing against the guys you that you have great relationships with.

Do you have great relationships with people in your same field? I do, And it's but you guys are friendly, and you guys are also competitive.

Okay, I guess I see what you did there. You put it on me. I like that.

I put it on everybody who's listening.

I see that.

I said, yeah, okay, So like don't they people like to make it because it's a game of basketball, and you know, these guys like I did never understood that.

I never understood why. Like and it was a rule before we got in the NBA.

First of all, Like and pat Riley was a part of this right not fragnizing with the other opponents because you know, maybe it makes you look weak or softens you out, whatever the mentality is, and I respect it and I understand it. Mellow just actually told another story about when I when I couldn't talk to him because of that. And that's respect in the workplace, whatever the case may be. But out of the workplace, you you have the relationships that you have on your own that don't have nothing to do with the work. They don't have nothing to do with my job. And I want to be and me want to be the best at my job. I don't what I'm going to take less shots when I play you. I'm going to not hit you as hard like I grew up with brothers. You know who I competed hardest against my brother's.

True my dad.

Like we go to Broves, you got something to prove, we got something, yeah, and so like I won't.

I want to have my best games against my friends.

I want to hit all like you won't think I want to hit that game went over bron my last game, and and that's smart sucker. He knew what move I was gonna do, and he took it away from me.

I saw that, Remember that.

I was about to go to that left I was about to put that ball in that left hand and side step his ass and go for that game winner in the in the stable.

Centers my last game, and he took it away. You don't think I wanted that moment?

Fair?

Yeah, So that whole notion, that's that's not real. That's that's that's somebody who's never been in the heat of the battle versus someone they love. I can love you, but I'm It's not a movie where you like, let me let go because I want him to win. No, I'm not letting go of nothing. You gotta take it from me. And that's the way we played versus each other. You gotta take this homeboy, And it's gonna be love. Before the game, We're gonna do our handshake. It's gonna be loved after the game. We may if we stay overnight, we're gonna go to dinner, We're gonna hang out. Feli is gonna say high. No, man, that whole notion, and to me, it was never a real thing. And if you if anybody think it was, then just go to the Robins Illinoise and ask anybody who was neighbor of my family's growing up, and they'll tell you how we went at each other and that's that's that's blood, that's love, and we go at each other harder than anybody. The Draft is the one thing that I try to watch if I can, every year because that moment right there, that's to that point in your life, that's everything that you work for, it's everything that you dreamed of, and that moment coming true is one of the greatest feelings that you can have. So it's probably one of the first times that life shows you that it's gonna show up for you the way you want it to, you know what I mean, Like you, you pray for it, you work hard for something, and eventually you know you get it in whatever capacity that you know the Big God bless you with.

But that moment for me is the moment.

So every time I watch the Draft and I see these young kids and I see their families and I see them like they crying, and I know I know what's to come, and I know what's coming. I know what that day feels like like what that moment feels like. And so I'm I'm filled with so much joy for them because you know, for a lot of that's the best time of your NBA career, the moment you get drafted, because then the business takes over.

It ain't ain't all.

Yeah, chill, No moment's work is working.

Ain't no, it ain't all roses.

Up there, But it's still it's still beautiful that you know that you get to live that dream out. And so that's the one thing that I probably try to watch every year when I when I get an opportunity, you know, just to see what these young kids like, where they're going, what they're going to say, what their parents like, what their parents gonna say, what they're wearing. You know, I remember the outfit's been a big deal, And I tell myself, I was like, the outfits are such a big deal in the draft that I'm going to wear an outfit and no one is ever going to want to talk about me because it's just going to be basic, Ma what you mean? Like, I was like, you know me, Like I'm like even though like I've grown and I've taken chance since you know, as I've gotten older, but I've always been a person who is you know, who had a little style and a little flair. And on the draft, look at my suit. Just look at my draft suit. Ain't no style, ain't no flair. Not I ain't talking about the cut of it. I ain't talking about the make of it, you know. Shout out to Willie Scot who made my draft suit, black brother from Chicago. I remember it was a big deal for me. Is the first thing I ever got made. So shout out to Willie Scott. But I was like, Willie, I just want a blue suit, something really easy.

I remember, I can see that, I can see it.

I was like, just real chill. And then Willie was like about this blue shirt. But I'm like cool, whatever, whatever. I just wanted to be.

And then and I still because of the draft class I was in as well, that comes up every year.

That's that's that picture. And they always called me a pastor like Wae. But and I tried my hardest to stay out of that conversation. I was like, this is going to get it done. And I was like afterwards, I was like, probably of the water Blacks.

I got two suits made blue and black, and I chose the blue one because blue was my favorite color at the time.

Okay, well I ain't mad at that. Now. You know you've ever etched, you were the first passed away. All right, What are some of the toughest conversations you've ever had with loved ones and how did they take them? Oh?

I mean, listen, I've been a leader in my family for a very long time, and so I've had a lot of tough conversations with love ones. Most of my conversations are tough conversations with loved ones. And it starts with no. You know how you take no? You don't know how to take it. Everyone wants yes, and so the toughest thing to do is to look at your loved ones in the face and say no. Right, And because these other people who you know, they those art strings get.

To you know. And so.

Being in this position that I've been in in my family, where I've been, you know, kind of put in a position to be the leader of my family.

I mean, I've I've had tough conversations with my dad. What I had to tell my dad, and my dad say this all the time that.

I told him that my dad came to me with this old elaborate plan how he wanted some money. And he came in with this plan and I listened to it, and then afterwards, like I think stole cold faced it. I was just like, bro, you got to go and work on yourself. You got to rebuild yourself.

Like my dad was in there.

He was beenning out of it, like he was out of control. Copy And when I was a kid, you don't say nothing. You can't say nothing.

But when I.

Became the leader of the family and I became the one of everybody, was like, hey, I need well, this is how it's going to go. And so I remember telling my dad really just seriously, like yo, you gotta go get yourself straight. You got to go start all over before you can come.

And what was that like that?

It was tough. It was tough as hell. I remember my dad came. We always in Chicago. My dad came to my condo. We sat down and we ate, and you know, he had all these ideas and things he wanted to do. But I wasn't in a place where I was gonna give him money because he wouldn't have known what to do with money at that time, right, And so I had to, you know, in a sense the reverse changed quickly and I had to tell him what was hard for me to tell him. And at the time, my dad was you know, he was in the alcohol heavy, heavily, and he didn't he didn't handle it well when he would you know, would enjoy you know, liquor, and so with that he would become a whole different beast.

We all know that, we all know that way.

And so I was just at the point where I was like, Bro, you gotta go. You need you need a form of help in some way for you know, before you think you want to enjoy this life and before I give you some money to go and just blow it, you need to go fix yourself, right Like we all have these moments where we need to grow up. And I've been there and I will continue. I hope somebody keep telling me go grow up, because so I can go do that because I know you love me if you if you go tell me something like that. And so that was hard to have with my father, you know what I mean. And if you talk to my father to day, he didn't like it, but he respects it and he's thankful for it today because of you.

Know the place he is.

In life now, but I had to look him stir in the face and tell him to go pretty much go grow up.

Wow.

Yeah, that was one one many conversations with my loves.

And the thing is how people take it is that they only take yes.

It's great. Wow.

People only take yes, it's great. Anything outside of it, Yes, it's not going to be taken.

Greatly.

Maybe ain't even taken greatly. It leaves some hope, but nobody want to maybe and knows are.

How dare you? How dare you say no to me? That's how nos are taken.

And so it's a tough place to be in because it's gonna be way more nose and way more maybes than yes.

Hopefully you if you watch them right now, do you remember talk about when you became the leader of the family, And I'm sure that happened when you became the biggest bread wind in the family.

Yeah, it was only bread it once. My dad could have put his paws on at any point.

But now that's a lot of responsibility like that.

Yeah, college out of nowhere, twenty one years old.

I went from broke to no responsibilities to having a kid, getting married to run being a leader of my entire family in one year.

The transition like, and I know it wasn't. It couldn't because you have to learn how to say no, obviously, because you're gonna lose all your money if you don't. Yeah, Like, what's that like? Because you got you talk about your brothers, are you you got sisters, you got you got everybody in your family? Like what was that like learning how to say nope?

Well, I mean I had to be taught. I had to, I had to be taken advantage of. I had to I had to say no.

For the first time, Like all you got to do all these things. In my college coach Coach Crean, that was something that he always talked to me about was where I was going. You know, he knew that my where my path was going. I didn't know that where I'm going. You're gonna have to learn how to say no. These are the conversation that he sat down and had with me. And that's why I love Coach Crean. It wasn't just a coaching, you know, player relationship where we sat down and we have man and man conversation.

You're going to have to learn how to say no. You know how hard it is going to be.

And so I was, you know, taught that and why why are you gonna have to say no? And these are the reasons you do say no? Like you just always you just don't say no for no.

No? You know what?

All right? You want to do something, well, here's the work you gotta do. You do that work? Come to me?

And then with talk right because everybody just wanted right away. And so learning how to say no was something that I had to work at because who wants to say no to people they love? Especially not me. I have a personality where I want everything to be fine. But I also had a personality where I say no, right, I will. I don't want to, but I will.

Let's less. I love it. Know.

The Capricorn to me, baby, the Capricorn to me, Okay, this won't be the best no I've ever got, but it's the best no I can think about that I've ever got. So when I was in high school, Darius Miles just told the story on the OG Show with DN and Mike Miller.

I was in high school. I played au basketball one year. It's my junior year.

I played for Illinois Warriors and Darius Miles was the best player on our team. Darius Miles ended up being coming out of high school being drafted number three overall. But throughout that year, like, I was pretty damn good. If them out scored thirty, I have twenty eight or thirty myself. Like we were hooping and I was hooping, and so it was time for It was getting time for Nike Camp. And this is what all the players want to You want to get invited to Nike Camp. This is the biggest camp in the world at this time. All the best players are going there. So we were one of the best teams. We were a Nike team. We had the best player, so you know, obviously everyone got a chance to see us and scout us all the time.

Now not saying I was the second best player on the team, but I was pretty good.

I was up there, And I remember getting ready for Nike Camp. Right thinking that I was going to Nike Camp. I was told that, hey, we're going to get you a Nike Camp. He's just got to do some paperwork, but it's all good. And I remember the day that I was like, have my bags ready to go to Nike Camp. I'm waiting on my coach. If he was supposed to show up at one, he showed up at like four. I'm waiting hours for him. And he finally pulled up and I walked out with my bags ready to go, and I saw his head down and he was like, de you ain't get you ain't get invited to Nike Camp. And I was just shocked, and I was like, well, who got invited from Auntie? About seven of the dudes from my team now seven of dudes better than me. Seven of the dudes, now they were good, good players, but like I was pretty good, and that crushed me. And that know that they gave me. I've never been the same player since that. No, I've never been the same person since that. No, says I walked back in the house with my damn bags and I had to tuck my tail between my ass. I've never been the same person or player. And so for my career, that was the best know I ever got. So thank you Nike for not inviting me to Nike Camp. I appreciate that because it made me. It really woke up that inner beast in me. And see, and that's on the record, and then everyone who played against me knows that and everyone who played with me know that, and so that.

Was the best know I ever got.

Do you know why this why you was?

Now? I do multiple things don't matter. Okay, let's because but.

I was seventeen years old when it happened. About twenty one, I was the face of Converse, one of the Nike brands. I was the leading face of it. Four years later, I didn't get anybody's Nike camp, but I'm leading one of the brands four years later. So for me, that was a little sweet when I.

Walked into when I walked around the Nike people like, Yo, what's up? How y'all doing?

Oh? I love it.

I love that out here.

As a.

One who's been who was considered a superstar in this league when this league no longer at this moment because you don't play anymore, but you were a superstar.

And sometimes you're gonna say that, I know I'm be talking about.

Okay, so you have an author, yes, yes, all right, let's get to it.

So who are superstars? Now?

Well, it's okay. What makes you great?

Question to me is more than one version of a superstar. So you have basketball superstars and then you have worldly superstars. Okay, so basketball superstars are guys who are multiple All Stars. You're out the year book it okay, we can go down the line and book who the Lebron's, the Steph Curry's to Kevin Durant that we can go down the line and book who are superstars in a game of basketball?

Right?

And so you got All Star, you got a star, you got superstar. Then you let me not put brown and I'm sorry. Then you got above that, Katie, and you got above that, right, But I'll say that to say their superstars. Jason Tatum is a young, younger superstar. Anthony Edwards is a young superstar. We have superstars in the game of basketball now when it comes to worldly conversations. To me, in the definition I got of what a superstar was was we need to care. We need to care about who you're dating. We need to care about what you're eating. We need to think about you when you're not on TV playing basketball. We need to care enough about you in that way, and that makes you a superstar. That makes you to me, that makes you outside of the game of basketball. To go from this, it's a lot of superstars in the game because they're very great players. How do you become a superstar in the world. People have to care about things besides how many points you're scoring.

So to me, that's why I.

Said, like, the game of basketball has superstars, right, you have those elite stars that are superstars that if you on a platform like ESPN, you're on TNT, you on all these platforms, there are gonna continually continuously talk about you. James Harden is a superstar, Russell Westbrook is a superstar, and so forth and so on. We have we have superstars, and then it's to me, it's other superstar. It's the it's the culture. It's the pop culture superstars. It's the ones that you care about what they're doing when they're not playing a game of basketball and not just when it's a negative story that comes out.

Those is a that's a whole other level of superstar.

Them that I feel that a lot of guys don't cross over into some because they just won't cross over into it, and some don't want to. And sometimes it depends on who you're dating. Sometimes it depends on what what invitations you get to certain events. Right, Like, it continues to grow, and that's why I like, even though I'm retired, you can still call me a superstar because you still see.

Me in these superstar lanes.

And I'm not playing a game of basketball, right, I'm not calling myself a superstar saying someone can call me a superstar.

Which is right now, right, No, you set it up so it's right.

Okay, So yeah, that's how I think about it.

But now, so the question is I'm going ask the next question. The real question is do you think there are any superstars in NBA?

Now the I think or or others thing is the whole different what you think.

Because we're talking to you, let me give what you think. Yes, tell me to put you on the spot. But go ahead, yes, okay, you want to name any of them?

No, okay, because I had to sit and really think about who I think. I mean, I can name one Lebron James.

Okay, this exclude Lebron and stuff.

Because we know, like, okay, like an example for me, Anthony Howards is becoming a superstar. He's in the very early stages of it. He's maturing into a superstar. And only at the same time he's maturing into an NBA basketball superstar, and we're actually starting to care about Anthony Edwards away from the game.

Right, the stuff that he's saying in his interview is how he is.

How like we're starting to care about him now, right, you have a little bit like when he comes up, you ain't just looking for points, Like.

Let me see what Anthony ever said.

So now he's in the he's in the early stages of like, Okay, he's building this now it has to it has to keep going.

We have to continue to care about him.

The same way we care about what he does on a basketball court, we have to continue to care about what he does away from the game of basketball. That's how you build to be a global a superstar.

Remember you mentioned that story back when Shot got to to the he and he said he's gonna teach you how to be a superstar.

Yeah he did.

Like what was that like for you?

He said, I'm gonna make you a superstar and then I'm gonna teach you along the way.

Yeah, So what was that like? Like, how did that Now I'm going back to now because you became one, because how was that for you? Like you coming in you second year in the league, you know, you had a great playoffs run and Shot comes in and tells you you gonna make you a superstar uncomfortable.

Anybody who know me before a Shock came around, you might have heard me say five words in a row, the most words I will say.

I was very shy. I was very quiet.

I always listen to everything that's going on and always observed things that's going on.

But I didn't talk much. I didn't have superstar written on me.

First, let's say that shot came in and it kind of walked me through how to be myself to be a superstar, because I didn't know that people were actually like, I didn't know that people would care about anything about me outside of what I do on the basketball floor. But what I did on the floor had to be so loud that people had to start looking. So I had to take care of that first. Pirali always say, keep the main thing, the main thing. The main thing was I had to get them. I had to get to it on the floor. And then once I started getting to it on the floor, and we started traveling, and it wasn't just three hundred thousand people outside for Shock and maybe one hundred was for me, Like I started seeing like, oh wait, like he gave me flash, he gave me a character. He gave me something that people can buy into, right, he gave me that nickname, and so I had to live up to that, Like it's a lot of things I had to also live up to.

But he saw it in me. I just didn't know how. And so the education that I.

Got from Shaq was things that I used throughout my brands. Like one of my favorite commercials that I ever done was the Converse commercial where I say from Robins, Illinois, six foot four guard. That commercial was written off of my poem that I wrote to the game of basketball. And what I got from Shaka Run that time was to allow myself to be my own brand.

Like whatever you want to do, you do it.

And you make sure that the people who are your partners or whatever that they know what you want to do and you make sure that they do that. And so when it came to that commercial, I remember they had set like three or four different spots in front of Lisa and I and I didn't like any one of them, and the meeting just kind of was like quiet, right, like think about it. They lied, they come up, they've been working. Here goes option one and me at Lisa's like he goes option two three, and I didn't like need none of them. And this was a big deal that this commercial. I was one of the top athletes. I have my own signature shoe. This commercial will have to be a big commercial. And I laid and then Lisa said, once you share your porn with them, and I was like yeah, and I shared my porn with them because this is who I am. So I need y'all get to know who I am and not and not me and not me fall into what y'all trying to make me right, right, because superstar, if you're if you're fake with it, everyone's gonna know. So I think what he taught me is authenticity in building your your stardom and open your mouth and let people in on who you are. We know you quiet and you ain't saying much, but we know it's something in there because you're not this good because you you got something in there. So let it out. And so I started letting it out. Not only on the court, I started letting out the meetings. I started letting it out. Baby and q Rich actually just talked about this on the Old g podcast. Shout out to u D and Mike Miller for the O G Show. He just talked about this on the OG Show. He was like, he was like he remembered when everything changed for me because deep deep mousing curage. I've been knowing since I was seventeen years old. So they know to quiet me, and then they found out the twenty two year old not quiet me and curas it goes and explained the moment he realized that shit didn't change right, and it was really it was the shock. It was a Damon Jones era. It was the Heatles we are the Heatles coming in the town era, and a lot of them had to do with Shock, for sure, the confidence that he put in me, but also the you know, the teaching of watch me. I'm going to show you how that's done, bringing me to his commercials, making me a part of his commercials. There's a lot of things that big fella did behind the scenes. A lot of people don't know. And I watched and he showed me how to be a superstar. And it's just being who you are. That's who shock is.

He's just shocked.

Yeah, right, I think it's been in general, it's always been tough, hard for us. It's been to talk about anything that's not tough. Why just just just the way, just think about it, just think about at least for me, I had a friend of mine, as I told him, I said, I never talked to my I remember my dad first. I can remember my dad hugged me for the first time. I remember I was seventeen years old and I graduately, I got my diploma money. He gave me a hug and I said, whoa, this is real, right, yes, And for me, like, it's so crazy because we grew so our lives so different as we got older. But at that moment, remember, at seventeen years old, my dad was trying to like give me a little hugging. I'm I'm sure for him it was different because he never did it, and it was different for both of us. And I'm like, you know, this is kind of awkward, okay, you hugging me? And I'm like, and I think about it. I remember to this day when it happened. Look at my kids now. I'm trying to be so opposite of that. But the process of going up through that, I remember going as a kid like, man, if I want this. Then I started crying my dad like what you're crying for yeah, man, like what you're doing. And I'm like, so you can't cry. You gotta hide it, you gotta like And it's crazy how growing up as a young black man as how much we have to kind of shield our emotions. Yeah, like cover, like I need to cover and need to cover and get aide and it's just I just don't I don't need to see.

Well, a lot of circumstances is the reason we have to do that, right, Like, you know, everyone is not in a position where they can just be freely expressive because of the circumstances that your family has in half. And so I think one we have to give grace to the generations before us as parents about the circumstances which wouldn't Allot, listen, I may want to hug you, but you know what's on outside of that door. I'm sorry, I can't. I can't even I can't even chance you're going to be soft in any way because I need you to be hard.

I need you to be tough.

And whether that's being chased by unleashed dogs in the neighborhoods or being bullied or whatever it is, I need you to be tough. And I need you to be tough minded, and so this is my way of teaching you how to be tough minded, because this is what I learned.

And so giving that grace to people before us.

But now when you know and you have the opportunity to that's where you and I come in at now, because one, we know because we didn't like that, but it.

Helped build us, right, to help build character in us.

But also too, we have the opportunity and our kids have the opportunity because of you know, resources or finances and all these things to be to not have to have that right. So I tell people all the time, and this is where I think my relationship with my kids flourish is because it and it flourishes. And I say this because my relationship with my mom and dad, no matter what we've all been.

Through, it continues to flourish because.

It is a no judgment zone. And if you're not in a space where you're in a no judgment zone, you're never going to be fully who you want to be and who you are if I feel any judgment coming from you. And that's why we have a lot of failed relationships. And I'm not just talking about you know marriages. I'm talking about relationships period, because they're not free judgment zones.

It's a lot of.

Judgment and a lot of our relationships and so I tell my mom and dad all the time. It's like we so we could tell each other anything. We can go through anything and be able to support each other because ain't no judgment here, none, and a lot of people don't have that

The Why with Dwyane Wade

Dwyane Wade sits down with pioneers in sports, fashion, music, and business for an intimate conversa 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 19 clip(s)