NBA

Why It’s Especially Hard To Hate Dwyane Wade On Father’s Day

From their premature celebration before the season to their premature celebration during the NBA Finals, it’s been very easy to dislike the Miami Heat . But try as we might, it’s just impossible for us to hate Dwyane Wade.

The captain of the Heat was recently honored by the National Fatherhood Initiative for his efforts in raising his two sons, 9-year-old Zaire and 4-year-old Zion, as a single father. It took an ugly battle with the children’s mom, Siohvaughn Funches Wade, but D-Wade now controls the custody of his kids, a relationship that was recently chronicled in a story by The Associated Press.

“You have a choice to make,” Wade said. “You’re either going to be in your kids’ lives or not. At the end of the day, this is what I wanted. I chose to fight to be in my kids’ lives.”

The AP’s story about Wade also features the reconciled relationship between Dwyane and his own father, Dwyane Sr.

“A lot of things that happened in my life are some of the same steps that he went through,” Wade said. “A lot of steps I’ve taken in my life are like my dad’s, and I tried so hard not to be like him growing up.”

And then they all went to a water park!

Instead of lamenting over the NBA finals loss to the Dallas Mavericks – yes, it still hurts, to the point where he’s still avoiding television in case replays pop up – he was spending Saturday flanked by his two sons and their once-estranged grandfather at a jam-packed South Florida water park, enduring long lines because it’s what his kids wanted.

Just as the reasoning behind why he cried after the Finals helped humanize Chris Bosh, the story of three generations of Wades does the same for Dwyane.

LeBron James, you’re up.