Dwyane Wade once pictured himself in LeBron James ‘ position as an NBA dad. His eldest, Zaire’s, NBA career never worked out. Zaya made it very clear to her dad she’s not interested in basketball. D-Wade gave a tiny update once on his youngest son, Xavier, who is getting into the youth circuit. But what about the youngest of the Wade household? Kaavia James Union Wade is a dance extraordinaire, the smartest cookie entrepreneur ever, and the coolest influencer on the ‘Gram. Her parents haven’t exactly shown her basketball chops. Kaavia’s still in the early stages of a potential hoops dream, and D-Wade is making sure he’s learnt from his mistakes.

AAU dads were the running theme of the Timeout podcast this week. Unlike his co-hosts, Wade’s not neck deep in youth basketball because his youngest two are just starting out. Also, because Zaya was not playing competitively. While Zaire was naturally inclined to his dad’s sport, Wade is not going to shove the sport on his youngest kids.

As he told his co-hosts, “I’ve kind of gotten away from the mentality of you need to love the sport.” He’s instead focused on micro-reasons to enjoy basketball, like the desire to stay fit. It’s something he’s extended to Kaavia as well.

“I don’t want to put pressure on my kids to say, ‘Kaav, you better love basketball.’ Kaav may not love basketball, but she may love that her family’s in the sport, that her dad played the sport.” He also acknowledged there might be things that would deter her from basketball, and he is careful about it. “She may not want to be embarrassed… She may not want to lose. Whatever those things that drive you to get up every day and do something and try to be successful at it, that’s what I want you to do.”

He kind of hinted at what his and Gabrielle Union’s six-year-old daughter’s relationship with basketball is now when he said, “For my daughter right now, it’s like, yo, if she’s going to play sports or do anything like this, it has to be wins that she has to experience now. She has to love the wins that she getting because she don’t love the work right now.”

Not to say Kaavia is not about that Heat Culture. It’s more than obvious she works hard in dance and school. She’s still discovering hoops, and it would be too much, too fast to put her to the grind. We don’t see Dwyane Wade, the coach, much, but he’s adapted Pat Riley’s win-first mentality to Kaavia right now. “If she loves the fact that she can make five shots in a row, I can get her back out there. You know what I mean? It’s that feeling of success that I need to love more so than I need you to love this sport right now.”

This might not be what we’d expect from the Heat Culture legend. It’s smart, though, and D-Wade wouldn’t want to scare away another daughter from the sport.

Zaya helps Dwyane Wade coach Kaavia

Zaya Wade established herself as a model and activist while performing great academically. She just graduated and is going to major in astrobiology in college. All this while casually playing basketball and volleyball. Yeah, she was no competitive athlete, but she has the genes of a 3x NBA champion.

Even without training, Zaya said, “Not to toot my own horn, but I was a bit of a natural… I can light it up. I still have a couple of skills,” on her Timeout debut on her 18th birthday. She’s a good shooter but weak at dribbling. Which is fine because her dad was not much use in the perimeter, but could dribble and drive up to the basket for effective scoring. “DNA is in there,” Zaya can confidently say. “I would need to refine it a little bit, but the raw talent is still there.”

Dwyane Wade admitted he had to give up on his child playing alongside Bronny and Bryce James when Zaya came out as trans at 12. He has kids who share his passion, though. After the G-League and an overseas stint, Zaire Wade dominated the Miami Pro-League recently. Wade revealed that he was stunned at the AAU schedules Xavier is getting into on Timeout some time ago.

Though Zaya said she was never interested in playing basketball, she is the best assistant coach for her sister. “Today, me, her, and Zaya were actually out there. I showed Zaya, like ‘Zaya, look at your sister.’ And Zaya was like, she’s like, ‘Go ahead, do something that I couldn’t do. Carry on.’ Zaya’s crazy,” D-Wade revealed shortly after Kaavia’s 6th birthday. We’d have to see if D-Wade and Zaya do make a future hooper out of Kaavia. She’s already a star in our books.