Recently retired NBA legend Dwyane Wade has the time today to address his critics who took umbrage at his support for his son, 12-year-old Zion, who came out as openly gay during this past April’s Miami Pride parade.
Zion Wade was accompanied to the event with his step-mother, actress Gabrielle Union, while D-Wade was away playing a game in Toronto.
“I don’t really talk about it much because it’s Zion’s story to tell,” D-Wade told Variety magazine. “I think as a family, we should support each other. That’s our job. And my job as a father is to facilitate their lives and to support them and be behind them in whatever they want to do.”
D-Wade, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer and three-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat, has advice for parents with Variety who encounter similar circumstances with their children:
“I’m asked a question about my kids a lot from a sports perspective. I think people expect you to parent each kid the same. They are all different, and I have to get to know them and where they are. I have to say to most parents, get to know your kids. Don’t put your wants and needs on them.”
Wade, 37, who is coming out with his debut memoir 3 Dimensional in the fall, classily checked critics for not doing what he is expected to do as a parent:
“This is my job as a father. I’m very uneasy about accolades that come from supporting my kids or the negativity that comes from it. I’m doing what every parent has to do. Once you bring kids into this world, you become unselfish. It’s my job to be their role model, to be their voice in my kids’ lives, to let them know, ‘You can conquer the world.’ So, go and be your amazing self and we’re going to sit back and just love you.”
