Dwyane Wade, 37, is standing by his son. The former Miami Heat player spoke about his 12-year-old son, Zion‘s, self expression on the Dec. 18 episode of Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast and demonstrated nothing but love and admiration for his child, as haters continue to judge him. “I watched my son, from day one, become into who she now eventually come into,” Dwyane shared. “And for me… nothing changes in my love. Nothing changes in my responsibilities. So, all I had to do now is get smarter educate myself more. And that’s my job,” he continued.
And Dwyane couldn’t help but share just how incredibly proud he is of the 12-year-old for facing such adversity at a young age. “First of all, you want to talk about strength and courage, my 12-year-old has way more than I have,” he added on the podcast. “You can learn something from your kids.” Dwyane is also the father to sons Xavier Zechariah, 6, Zaire Blessing Dwyane, 17, 13-month-old Kaavia James with his wife Gabrielle Union, 47, and is also the guardian of his nephew Dahveon Morris, 18. Dwyane even added that he and Gabrielle want their kids “to be whoever they feel that they can be in this world. That’s our goal. Understand you can be whoever and you can be whatever.”
Of course, the drama began when Dwyane shared a photo on his Instagram for Thanksgiving. The image featured Dwyane’s lovely little family, including Gabrielle, Kaavia and Zion. In the photo, Zion wore a crop top and showed off a bold manicure. A swath of haters flooded Dwyane’s comments, leaving him to make an initial response on Twitter, where he shared, “I’ve seen some post-thanksgiving hate on social about my family photo. Stupidity is apart of this world we live in—so I get it. But here’s the thing — I’ve been chosen to lead my family not y’all. So we will continue to be us and support each other with pride, love & a smile!” Dwyane’s eldest son, Zaire, followed suite and voiced his support of his 12-year-old brother on Instagram on Dec. 3. Clearly, there’s a lot of love with this family.
But even on the podcast episode, Dwayne was still ready to bolster Zion, as trolls continue to make awful comments. He finally doubled down on the tweet when attending the podcast, saying, “All these people that’s out there saying these things, look at yourself. Understand that you’re the one that’s got the issues. You’re the one that’s got the problem,” he continued. “It’s not the kids, it’s not the ones who decide, ‘Yeah, you born a certain way, you gotta be that way.’ That’s not life, man.”