Dywane Wade: Wade's World Camp Offers a Real Look into Wade's World

The setting is Wade's World Weekend, a  weekend camp hosted by Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade in his hometown of Chicago.

It's a free camp for 600 at-risk youths in Chicago. It encourages fatherhood and mentoring of children. The event is as much for the fathers as for the kids. 

Picking up the ball, the man casually dribbles it between his legs and behind his back. He switches hands, in a nonchalant kind of crossover. The ball bounces off his left foot and rolls a bit before he picks it up and tucks it on his hip. 

He dances to the music, kind of goofing on the balls of his feet. He smiles and laughs, talking to a pair of counselors. He moves on, stops and gives two others a warm hug and a greeting.

As the young boys and their fathers are practicing their crossover dribbles, he jumps out in a defensive stance in front of one young boy, no more than four feet tall. The boy's eyes grow big and the man laughs, turning to his father, "he was like, I can take you!" 

The boy asks, "Are you Dwyane Wade?"

His confusion is understandable. Apart from the familiar diamond stud earring, there's nothing in his manner that suggests he's one of the greatest basketball players on the planet and a former NBA Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade.

The setting is Wade's World Weekend, a  weekend camp in Chicago. It's a free camp for 600 at-risk youths in Chicago. They even offered everything from bowling to a "Chicago's Got Talent" show at the end. It also involved some coaching form Dwyane Wade, as well as real time spent with the Miami Heat superstar.  

There may be some stars who lend not much more than their name to their camps, but when Wade starts talking about what it means to him, it's apparent that, to him, it's not just a camp, it's his camp, and he really seems vested in it.

This isn’t a camp for the elite basketball players in the country or the McDonald's All-Americans. The 600 boys and girls are there from challenged homes, and attend free of charge. Some of them seem to be familiar with the ball, but others barely seem to have ever handled one before.

Most of the coaches and counselors are there free of charge as well. Many of them have taken vacation days from work in order to help. Their concern is no different than their sponsor's. The camp is all about the kids.

Some of the mentors and fathers look like they last played ball when they were their children’s age. It quickly becomes clear that, for them, this is also more about fatherhood and mentoring than it is about basketball. The camp may be for the kids, but the message is for the father figures.

Wade, who grew up in a single-parent home, was raised by his father, Dwyane Sr., who is also at the camp with Wade.

That’s why it’s important to him to host these events and Wade’s World. Without his dad, he wouldn't be the man he is today, or the father he is today. 

In today’s world of sound bites, talk radio and the ubiquity of opinion-based TV shows where the talking heads snipe at the character of athletes, the general population can get a feel for a person that’s completely inaccurate.

There was another side to Wade—whether he was talking to the kids, the other counselors or the other dads—that showed there was more to him than what the cameras portrayed.

Here, there wasn’t a man obsessed with himself or feeling sorry for himself. Here was a man who seemed genuinely interested in helping children to have the same opportunity he had. Maybe not to be an NBA player, but something as simple as having a father, or a father figure in their lives.

Wade took some time out, though, to give an interview, and when asked how he deals with so much criticism coming from people who don’t know him except from TV, he replied, “we understand that. People only know what the TV camera shows, and they think that’s our lives, that’s it of the person you are. But you can’t necessarily focus on that too much. If someone wants to know me and know what I’m doing, they can come out and support. They can come out and see what I’m doing and what I’m really about.”

Asked about some of the fun he was having with the kids, Wade said, “I’m blessed. All the things I do, and the platform I have, I try to enjoy it, 'cause one day I’m going to be sitting back watching someone else do it. I’m trying to enjoy life because where I come from in Chicago, and then to be where I am today, and what I’ve done,” Wade paused. “I don’t know, I dreamed big, I don’t know about dreaming this big. So now I just want to go out and enjoy it.”

Part of that enjoying life is living his message. Wade was presented with the National Fatherhood Initiative’s Father of the Year Award earlier in the day.

Asked about being a dad, he said, “I can just be dad and do the things I want to do with my kids. A lot of fathers, they don’t want to hug their kids or tell them they love them. I’m like too much! My kids are like “Dad! Get off me, you're embarrassing me!”

“I’m that kind of dad; I want them to know how much they mean to me, how much they drive me.”

Wade’s message is as much to the fathers as anyone. “My method is to get across the importance of it (fatherhood) to understand it is to shaping the way their sons grow up. A lot of people say it’s the moms! But a lot of times, it’s the fathers that are just as important or more important."

Wade isn’t afraid to hug his father, either. When Dwyane Sr. mentioned how important the hugs were while addressing the camp, Wade ran up behind him and gave him a big hug.

Dwyane Wade is more than just the Miami Heat and NBA superstar. He’s Dwyane Wade the son, Dwyane Wade the father, Dwyane Wade the camp counselor, Dwyane Wade the jokester and even Dwyane Wade the volunteer and philanthropist.

It’s easy for the jaded public to dismiss these sorts of things as merely “brand building,” but maybe the public needs to be a little less jaded and a little more “naïve” and receive the positive news about players like Wade as easily as we receive the criticism.