Dwyane Wade’s off-court impact spotlighted in touching tribute ad

SHARE Dwyane Wade’s off-court impact spotlighted in touching tribute ad
screen_shot_2019_04_09_at_11.35.45_am_e1554827718204.png

Dwyane Wade with the sister of Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver | Screenshot via Budweiser

Much of the focus during Dwyane Wade’s final NBA season has been on his impact as a basketball player, but Budweiser’s tribute ad to the three-time champion spotlighted his incredible impact off the court instead.

The touching ad takes a spin on Wade’s recent tradition of trading jerseys with respected peers following games by having people he helped personally off the court gift him with important items from their lives. It’s a testament to the quiet devotion with which Wade has worked to have a legacy beyond sports.

When the spot begins, Wade is standing at mid-court in Miami mentioning he has “no idea” what’s about to happen. Over the course of it, five different people he’s impacted came out to gift him items from their lives.

Among them are Wade’s mother, who credits his commitment to spending time with her while she was in prison to becoming a better person, and the sister of Joaquin Oliver, a victim of the Parkland shootings who was buried in a replica of Wade’s jersey.

“You’re not Wade the basketball player, the legend,” Oliver says. “You’re the human being that took the time and on his own, wrote my brother’s name on his shoe. And you cared.” She then gave Wade a basketball jersey that Joaquin had worn in his final championship game scrawled with the message: “Please don’t forget my brother, Joaquin.”

Wade will go down as one of the greatest players in basketball history, but as his mother in the spot’s final line, “You’re bigger than basketball.” These few minutes certainly slammed that point home.

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”