Preparation
Dwyane Wade’s Sunday jersey retirement ceremony was a family affair. As his uniform went up to the rafters—where it will now remain, alongside those of Miami Heat legends past—he made sure to take a moment to thank a special someone during the event: his wife, Gabrielle Union. “To my wife, Gab, thank you for coming into my life and showing me that life can be different. Through you, I learned that life is really what you make it,” he said, Entertainment Tonight reports. “Thank you for the experiences we’ve shared. Thank you for those Twitter rants.”
During the tribute, Dwyane explained how she has helped him throughout his career, on and off the court. “Thank you for calling me out when I wasn’t on top of my game,” he shared. “And, I’m not just talking about basketball—I’m speaking about life. Thank you for loving me, thank you for pushing me.”
Dwyane and Gabrielle—now married for five years—have always been strong communicators, citing their ability to openly talk to each other as one of their strongest attributes as a couple. Dwyane previously told Entertainment Tonight, “I think the biggest thing with me and my wife—what we’ve always tried to do in our short period of time, especially being married—is just to stay in constant communication with each other, try to support each other in everything.”
Family ties are also a clear part of the duo’s relationship foundation. When the two sat down in an interview with Oprah Winfrey after welcoming their first child, Kaavia James, in 2018, the athlete shared that being a unit is most important to them. “I want us all to be as together as we can be. I want us to all support each other. I want us to all appreciate each other’s abilities in life and support each other no matter what,” he explained, according to E! News.
