“The hard work I put in is because I didn’t want to let you down.” Dwyane Wade paid tribute to his father, Wade Sr., who has been an inspiration throughout his life. After winning three championships, a Finals MVP, and earning a statue outside Kaseya Center, Wade’s life now looks like the stuff of dreams. Today, the father-son bond is filled with laughter, and unlike the usual dad jokes, D-Wade has been taking jabs at his father’s married life, keeping the fun alive.

They appeared on The Wine Down show recently, where the host asked Wade Sr. for some marriage ‘wisdom’. He shared his take on marriage, saying, “I have a lot of experience. I had a lot of experience of being married. Yeah. Uh, three times, matter of fact. Fortunately… Wisdom? Yeah, let her be her. Let her do her. You continue to do you. Everything works out fine.”

But D-Wade wasn’t convinced it was that simple.

He quipped, “What if she wants you to do her and you want to do you? Give us that wisdom.” Without missing a beat, Wade Sr. replied, “Ain’t no wisdom in that,” and everyone burst into laughter. “It ain’t happening. So, I mean, just it’s it’s nothing you can do with a woman cuz you know the woman rules the world. So, you just got to let her be her, man. That’s how I look at it,” he continued.

The Miami Heat legend quickly jumped in, joking, “You’ve been married three times. I don’t know why we’re taking marriage advice from you,” sending everyone into laughter again. Wade Sr. nonetheless shared his perspective, drawing from his experiences: ten years with Dwyane’s mom, JoLinda Wade, over twenty years in his second marriage, and now fourteen years with Danielle Koping-Wade.

“I mean, well, you should take marriage advice from me if I’ve been married three times. I know the role. You know, I had maybe I had two bad,” Wade Sr. replied. And just when things couldn’t get any funnier, that’s when D-Wade realized his dad was talking about his mom. Without missing a beat, he jumped in to defend her, saying, “Hey man, I’m talking about my mom. Hey, man. Don’t do that. No, no. But hey, this ain’t no safe space.” It was all in good fun.

Dwyane Wade has been married twice himself. He first married Siohvaughn Funches in 2002, and they had two children, Zaire and Zaya. The couple finalized their divorce in 2010, with Wade eventually gaining full custody of their kids. Then, D-Wade and Gabrielle Union made their relationship public in 2010 and tied the knot in 2014. With that, Union became an essential part of the hoopster’s growing family—helping raise his two kids from his first marriage, his son Xavier, and even his nephew, Dahveon Morris, whom Wade looks after. Four years later, their family felt complete when baby Kaavia James arrived in 2018.

Since then, though, life hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride for Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union. Their marriage has seen its fair share of challenges: from the emotional rollercoaster of surrogacy and the public criticism about their age gap, to navigating Wade’s health struggles in 2023 while raising the family. Through all of it, they’ve stood together, even when the world seemed to have an opinion about every move they made.

Gabrielle has always been honest about the realities of marriage. “I famously said 50-50 or bust, right? And I meant that financially, spiritually, emotionally, and there’s just a lot of days that I have 10% and I need him to be 90%. There’s days that I don’t have s—and I need him to be 100%,” she admitted. It all circles back to what Wade Sr. said, both partners need to be themselves. It’s that balance of personal growth and mutual understanding that keeps a bond strong.

The perfect father-son story that shaped Dwyane Wade

“I wanted to be like my father.” That single line from Dwyane Wade perfectly sums up one of the NBA’s most heartfelt father-son stories. Growing up in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago, basketball wasn’t even Wade’s dream; it was his dad’s. That passion for sports never left; it found a new home in his son.

“He channeled his love of sport into his son,” D-Wade once said.

From that moment on, the two were inseparable: training, traveling, and dreaming together. But make no mistake, life under Wade Sr. wasn’t easy. A military man through and through, he brought that same strict discipline to his son’s training. “He was 6-foot-3, muscles, had a mean streak,” the hoopster recalled. “Damn right, I’m listening to my dad. I had no choice. I was scared of my dad.”

Whether it was missing a layup or skipping a drill, Wade Sr. didn’t tolerate half-measures. “And I would cry through it; he didn’t care,” the Heat legend said. “I’m talking about my shoulder hurting, my hand hurting, I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, whatever; he didn’t give a f—.”

But beneath all that toughness was love and the drive to make Dwayne Wade a man who would one day stand at the pinnacle of basketball.

Years later, when D-Wade stood on the Hall of Fame stage, all those moments came rushing back. “We had the same exact dream that we carried, same as that name, Dwyane Tyrone Wade. To know that we hustled all the way to the Basketball Hall of Fame is God’s will,” he said, his voice filled with emotion.

Through tough love, personal battles, and even health scares, the two men grew from coach and student to best pals — bound not just by blood, but by a dream they lived together.