The three-time NBA champ begged to differ with Kobe about the reason Heat players took for slain teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, saying it was not just because of race.
In a piece called “The Last Quarter,” in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine, author Ben McGrath brought up LeBron James, Wade and the rest of the Heat players posing in hoodies with heads bowed and posting the photo online.
Before the March 28 game in Detroit, which Wade missed with a sore hamstring, the Heat guard disputed the implication that Martin’s race was the overriding factor in the team’s decision to pose for the photo. He said that proximity also played a part. While Martin was killed in Central Florida, he grew up in the Miami area.
“It was our backyard, and being in our backyard, being something that a lot of guys on this team — not only growing up in the kind of environment that Trayvon was in — but also having young boys,” Wade told Bleacher Report. “Knowing that he is a big fan of the Miami Heat. That is something that we got behind. As a team. I can’t even say the organization. It was as a team. We got behind it. And it was more so that than the color of his skin.”
He goes on to say:
“There’s a lot of causes that go on, that players get behind, and it’s not all black causes,” Wade said. “You know what I mean? Most of the causes have something to do with something that’s near and dear to you.
Like Chris [Bosh] writing on his shoe earlier in the year, because his wife is Venezuelan.”
Bosh wrote “SOS Venezuela,” which is seen sprayed and stickered on cars all over South Florida, where the large Venezuelan community is concerned about the conditions back home.
“It’s the same kind of thing,” Wade said. “So it’s just a difference of opinion.”
