Dwyane Wade on How He and LeBron James Are Different as Basketball Dads: I 'Have More Self-Talk'
Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are both heavily invested in their sons’ time on the court — they just show it very differently.
Wade, 38, dropped by Watch What Happens Live on Tuesday night, where he talked to host Andy Cohen and a caller about his and James’ teenage sons (Zaire, 18, and 15-year-old LeBron Raymone Jr., a.k.a. “Bronny”) who play on the same high school basketball team and are “good friends.”
“I self-talk all the time,” the retired Miami Heat superstar told the caller about how he manages not to interject his own opinions into the boys’ game.
“I’m sitting over there and I’m like [to myself], ‘Don’t go crazy. Don’t go over there and choke the coach. Don’t go whup him up. Don’t go kick him. Don’t be this rough ass right now,’ ” Wade recalled.
“So I think I probably have more self-talk than LeBron, but he probably exerts more into the energy of the arena,” he continued. “But I talk to myself over there [saying], ‘Go sit down. Don’t get up, don’t get up. Okay, all right, cool, your son didn’t get in, don’t go put him in.’ Stuff like that. I just talk like that. Self-talk.”
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Wade is preparing for the upcoming release of a raw and comprehensive new documentary about his life — before and after he became one of the NBA’s most dominant players — which airs this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN. (He retired from professional basketball last April, after 16 years in the NBA.)
The documentary looks beyond just Wade’s time on the court, where the athlete recently told PEOPLE the sport’s longtime impact on his life is most felt.
“The biggest thing that basketball has given me? It restored my family,” he said. “My family will not leave this earth without having made some kind of imprint.”
He continued, “Basketball has given me sort of like, ‘There go the Wades right there. We see them.’ So, I’m proud of that. I’m proud of being the one in my family that could put us on the sheet somewhere where people will remember, hopefully, our impact as a family.”
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Meanwhile, James, 35, is gearing up to release his first-ever children’s book on Aug. 11.
Called I Promise, the “lively and inspiring” book’s description on HarperCollins’ website and Amazon says that it “reminds us that tomorrow’s success starts with the promises we make to ourselves and our community today,” and “has the power to inspire all children and families to be their best.”
“Books have the ability to teach, inspire, and bring people together,” James said in a press release. “That’s why these books, and the opportunity to get children and parents reading together, mean so much to me.”
“Most importantly, we wanted to make sure these stories are ones that every single kid can see themselves in,” the athlete and father of three continued. “I Promise is powerful in that way, and I can’t wait for people to read it.”
