NBA Star Dwyane Wade Talks Mother’s Drug Addiction and Father’s Accountability

Dwayne Wade

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade has penned a book titled “A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball,” in which he vividly describes his mother’s addiction to heroin and his sister’s role in stepping into his life and removing him from the drug deals and police raids in Chicago by taking him to his father’s home in a suburban city outside of Chicago. The book is the first time Wade has provided his perspective on his mother’s drug addiction.

“My mom didn’t know I had seen her shoot up,” Wade said, describing his mother’s addiction. As a child, he’d actually witnessed his mother shooting up, in which he says he became numb when he saw her in the act. His mother, Jolinda Wade, 57, has overcome her addiction.

She admits that she and her son had not discussed her addiction since she has come clean. ”My precious boy saw me with the needle in my arm,” she said in an interview from Chicago. “There were a lot of things that we had not talked about that they had seen.” When asked to describe his relationship with his mother today, Dwyane Wade said, ”We have a great relationship.” Jolinda Wade is now a pastor at New Creation Binding and Loosing Ministries. She also runs the community center Barrier Breakdown Transformed, which caters to people in need. The community center serves as a safe haven for children affected by Chicago’s teacher strike. ”I’m able to give people hope,” she said.

Dwyane Wade credits his older sister, Tragil, with helping shield him from the trauma of his mother’s addiction. She took Dwyane to live with his father, Dwyane Wade Sr., in Robbins, Illinois, when he was 10-years-old. Of his father Wade says, ”My father stepped up. I’m successful today because my father stepped up.” In addition to discussing his own childhood, the book discusses his two sons’ childhood after he acquired primary custody of them following a nasty custody battle with his ex-wife.

Are you going to buy Dwyane Wade’s book?