A Father First: How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball (50 page)

By Bob Metulus Images.

6/21/2012. On top of Mount Everest again! Later that night, I thought I’d dreamed it, got out of bed, and convinced myself to go back to sleep. That’s when it hit me: OMG! It wasn’t a dream. A world champion once again! The first time, it had taken three years, and now it had been six long, hard years. Wow!

By Bob Metulus Images.

Celebrating the NBA championship together and LeBron’s MVP win.

By Bob Metulus Images.

After all the nay-saying, adversity, falling short, falling down, getting back up again, here we are, laughing our heads off about something someone just said. Nuthin’ in the world beats the feeling of knowing you did it together as a team.

By Bob Metulus Images.

I wanted to share every moment of the weeklong festivities with my boys. Looking at their faces, I can see they know they helped make this day possible for me. (
Left to right:)
Zaire, Dada, Zion, and me.

By Bob Metulus Images.

Three generations of Wades, all together on top of the world! (
Left to right:)
Mom, Zaire, Dad, me
(top),
Zion, and Tragil, surrounded by the support of Team Wade, the Heat family, and the great city of Miami. Who could write a better ending to our story so far?

By Bob Metulus Images.

This picture says it all: Pure joy!

By Bob Metulus Images.

After all of the parades, celebrations, and attention, the best part of all is getting to come home to be with my boys, who are the lights of my life, forever and always.

By Bob Metulus Images.

A
cknowledgments

In my life and career, I’ve been truly blessed in being surrounded by people who are not only all-around great human beings but who are also some of the most gifted individuals in their fields. This was definitely true when it came to the team that worked with me on
A Father First.
My lasting gratitude goes to my literary agent, Simon Green, for bringing this book to reality, and to the entire crew at CAA and CAA Sports—for your vision and for believing in mine.

I am also grateful to editor Henry Ferris for your guidance and passion, and to Liate Stehlik, Lynn Grady, Seale Ballenger, Andy Dodds, and the rest of the team at William Morrow. I couldn’t have asked for a better publishing home.

Thank you to Mim Eichler Rivas, I am so grateful to you for putting your heart and soul into my story. You deserve most of the credit, if not all, for me being able to shed even more light on this thing called parenthood. I was blessed to have you help me tell my story.

TEAM NO SLEEP! My crew who does double and triple duty working on the business/personal side of my life to make sure I’m good. . . . I could not have accomplished what I have without you. . . . Huge appreciation is due to you who make it possible for me to do what I do as a father, athlete, businessman, philanthropist, and now author.

Henry “Hank” Thomas, aside from all of your wise and valued counsel on every aspect of work, I must thank you for encouraging me early on to tell my fatherhood story. Thank you for believing in me and always having my back.

Lisa Joseph Metelus, thank you for putting up with my nonsense and making sure that everything I should have and dream to have can be possible.

Rubenstein Communications, especially Amy Jacobs and Tisha Kresler, for all that you handle on the public relations/media front and for always going beyond the call of duty.

Sincere gratitude goes to my attorney, Jim Pritikin, and the rest of the firm of Beerman, Pritikin, Mirabelli, Swerdlove in Chicago. Jim, thanks for fighting for me and my family and for making sure that my children remained protected. Ginger Gorden, thank you for keeping my numbers in line and having the hard conversations. . . . It will pay off for me in the future! My stylist Calyann Barnett, thank you for always pushing me to take risks. . . . Your vision has taken us exactly where we wanted to be. Bobby Metelus a.k.a. Bobby Digital, you have captured images on and off the court that will forever tell my story. Thank you for your grind.

And to my home team: Richard Ingraham, master chef who keeps us fed and healthy; Brenda Larson, for your patience and guidance with the boys; and Shellye Martin, for your talents in always making my house a home. Special thanks to Sherif Balogun, my go-to guy I can always count on, and to our housekeeper Elizabeth and her family, for your hard work and loving spirit. You all are the glue that holds my family and home life together.

As for the important coaches, mentors, and fellow players in this game that I love so much, there aren’t enough pages for me to name every person who has starred in a meaningful role in my basketball journey. So let me just offer a collective shout-out to the coaches, as well as to the coaching, training, and office staffs, of my teams at Harold L. Richards High School and Marquette University, and of the Olympic teams on which I’ve had the honor of representing the USA; to the officials of the NBA as a whole; and of course to everyone in the Miami Heat extended family. After nine seasons, the Heat organization has been unstoppable in its support for me in all kinds of weather—good, bad, and indifferent. I am deeply grateful.

Given the added challenges of a compressed 2011/2012 season, I want to specifically acknowledge a handful of individuals at the Heat who’ve been in the trenches with me during this past year. At the top of that list is Erik Spoelstra, a.k.a. Coach Spo, who has risen to many challenges and who continues to bring out the competitor in me. And to echo Coach Riley’s reminder of 15 Strong, I want to acknowledge teammates whom I mention as part of the group but who deserve individual recognition—Joel Anthony, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Eddy Curry, Terrel Harris, Juwan Howard, James Jones, Mike Miller, Dexter Pittman, and Ronny Turiaf. You are all part of the heart that beats in our team, along with L.B., C.B., and my brother from day one, Udonis Haslem. The fact that I get to come to work every day in the company of your brotherhood goes so far beyond anything I could have dreamt up as a kid. Special thanks to Micky, Madeline and the Arison family, and Cris and Pat Riley—you all are my family.

To my brand partners who have made me proud to represent them over the years, I am so grateful for all that we’ve already accomplished and what’s still to come. Converse, Brand Jordan, T-Mobile, Gatorade, Upper Deck, McDavid, Pepperidge Farm, Hublot, The Collection and Mission Products, thank you for believing and trusting in me to represent you.

These words of acknowledgments wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t thank the fans. Your spirit fires up mine every time I step onto the floor. Basketball fans, past, present, and future, are the best fans of any sport on the planet. Thank you for keeping me hungry and allowing me to take flight.

Lastly, I gotta give some new and repeated thanks to the family and friends who have always had my back and always will. To the core guys of my Crew, thank you for believing in me and for taking the ride. Marcus Andrews and Vincent Holmes, thank you for the brotherhood that we’ve all shared since we first met. Marty McGlothan and Rob Jackson, thank you for your lasting friendship and support, and for always showing up for me. For all the struggles of my early life, I was still blessed by the love and caring of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews on both sides of the family. Much love to each of you. And, once again, I have to acknowledge the members of the immediate family I grew up in—Grandma, Mom, Dad, Tragil, Deanna, Keisha, Demetrius, Donny, Kodhamus, Maryya, and Antoine. I’m proud to say that all of my friends and brothers are great dads and take that responsibility very seriously. Though I’ve said before how much I love you all, it’s worth saying it yet again—I love you! Thank you to each of my parents and to Tragil for agreeing to relive some of the more painful chapters of the past in order to help me tell my story. You inspire me.