DWYANE TYRONE WADE JR.

Dwyayne Tyrone Wade, Jr was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1982. After what he described as a “trying” childhood he moved to Robbins, Illinois where he fell in love with sports at a young age to avoid succumbing to the street life. As he became a relevant athlete his family life improved just in time for him to have a strong support system before becoming a star football player at Harold L. Richards High School.

Initially, football was the sport he excelled at, but after a growth spurt his junior year he averaged 20 ppg and led his team to the state championship.  Academics were a big part of his underwhelming recruitment, and he decided to enroll at Marquette under coach Tom Crean. After sitting out his freshman year due to being academically ineligible he led his team to it’s two best seasons in almost a decade. He received AP All American honors and declared to the 2003 NBA Draft.

As part of the most accomplished draft class in history he went on to become a 3x NBA champion with the Miami Heat and retired in 2019. He is known as one of the pioneers of NBA tunnel fashion after the league changed its dress code. Today he remains one of the most relevant names in sports and fashion alike, often donning custom RichFresh suits on social media and TV appearances. Wade is the face of Chinese sneaker company Li-Ning and is currently building his own roster led by D’angelo Russell.

FUN FACTS

• Although the NCAA usually only allows students that have graduated to have their number retired, they made an exception for Dwyane. 
• Wade began dating actor, Gabrielle Union, in 2008 and the couple tied the knot in 2014
• He initially was signed to Jordan Brand and became the one of the first three players to have a signature shoe(Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony).
• Wade signed a multi-year deal with WarnerMedia which named him Creative Director for Bleacher Report.