Dwayne Wade
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Ever since retiring from the NBA back in 2019, Dwayne Wade has kept a relatively low profile, as he’s been enjoying his post-professional life with his lovely wife Gabrielle Union and his children.
Now, he’s revealing that life took a tumultuous turn in 2023 when he had to have a cancerous tumor removed after doctors found a growth on his right kidney. In a recent episode of his show, The Why With Dwyane Wade, the future NBA Hall of Famer revealed that he felt strange symptoms during that year that included constant cramps and weak urination, which spurred him to seek medical attention, as his father Dwyane Wade Sr. had his own bout with prostate cancer.
After D-Wade’s doctor ordered a full-body scan to see what could be causing the health issues Wade was experiencing, they discovered the tumor. Having sought multiple medical opinions on the matter, Wade learned doctors couldn’t take a biopsy to see if it was cancerous and ultimately decided to go under the knife and have the tumor and 40% of his kidney removed before things could get any worse.
“I had a personal decision to make. And what it was was, if this is cancerous, if this tumor, this cyst, is cancerous on your kidney, you’re 41 years old. You probably need surgery, so it’s something that needs to be removed so it doesn’t spread. I made the decision to have surgery. I had surgery on December 18, 2023.”
The decision proved to be the right one. After the tumor was removed it was examined, and he later learned it was indeed cancerous and deadly.
Telling his co-host Bob Metelus that it was “the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life,” Wade went on to credit his family for holding him down and being right by his side as he battled his health scare.
“Fortunately for me, my family got in, they jumped in. And what I saw, in the midst of that, and me going through my illness. I saw everybody show up for me and be there for me. In that process, in my weakness, I found strength in my family, in my friends, in my group.”
Thank goodness for modern medicine.
Check out the interview in full below, and let us know your thoughts on the situation in the comments section.
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NBA Hall-of-Famer Dwayne Wade recently cited how Florida’s policies against the LGBTQ community played a factor in moving his family from the state.
The former Miami Heat superstar sat down for an interview on the latest episode of the Showtime series Headliners with Rachel Nichols. Nichols asks him about the hypocrisy of state politicians who are big fans of his but vocally support policies against LGBTQ individuals and their families. “That’s another reason why I don’t live in that state,” Wade replied. “A lot of people don’t know that. I have to make decisions for my family, not just personal, individual decisions.”
Wade is the father of his fifteen-year-old daughter, Zaya, who came out as transgender in 2020. She was granted a legal name and gender change in February at the end of a lengthy legal battle with her mother, Siohvaughn Funches. “I mean, obviously, the tax [situation] is great. Having Wade County is great,” he continued. “But my family would not be accepted or feel comfortable there. And so that’s one of the reasons why I don’t live there.”
The 41-year-old, who’s married to actress Gabrielle Union, is also father to 8-year-old son Xavier Zechariah, 20-year-old son Zaire and daughter Kaavia James, 4. He cites his father as a major influence on his own parenting in the interview. “I tell my dad all the time, I’m just a mirror image of the way he loved us and the way that he accepted not only myself and my brothers but other kids in the community that didn’t have father figures,” Wade said. “And so I don’t know any difference. And so yes, I had to educate myself and yes, I had to get a better understanding. And yes, I had to lose some friends along the process, but I never wavered on loving my kids and trying to find space to get the chance to understand them,” he concluded.
The revelation by Wade comes weeks after Governor Ron DeSantis signed more expansive elements to a bill that has come to be known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law for its highly restrictive policies including bans on classroom education on gender identity and sexual orientation. DeSantis is currently locking horns with Disney over their opposition to his agenda, recently nominating a board that oversees the entertainment giant’s district of theme parks. That board, however, was stripped of its powers after being elected.
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