As its title suggests, D. Wade: Life Unexpected is an unexpected film. The latest offering from ESPN Films and Imagine Documentaries (an offspring of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment company), the doc follows the all-too-familiar trajectory of basketball legend Dwayne Wade – from impoverished childhood on the mean streets of Chicago in the 80s with a drug-addicted single mom, to superstar status as a 13-time NBA All-Star and three-time NBA champ. But what elevates Wade’s story above usual well-worn cliché is that the film’s director and executive producer Bob Metelus, a longtime friend and cinematographer (and thankfully, one of many POCs involved in the production – including another legend, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer Sam Pollard), digs deep beneath the surface of a heralded sports figure. In the process revealing a surprising human being who would most likely be a hero had he never even picked up a ball.
Through a wealth of material – news footage, home movies, video diaries, and fly-on-the-wall footage spanning the past decade – Metelus crafts a portrait of a man whose stunning feats on the court are equaled only by his remarkable talents as a father. Indeed, from the moment the future global icon became a dad as a college sophomore, Wade made the decision to always put his children above his career. And how many ambitious fathers of any profession can lay claim to that?
From the time Wade and his first wife divorced, he fought to remain present in his two young sons’ lives. When the joint custody agreement fell apart, he took chartered flights from Miami, where he was fast-becoming a rising star with the Heat, back to Chicago throughout the playing season to battle for full custody in court. When that was finally granted, he raised his boys as a doting single father until falling in love with the actress Gabrielle Union. Fatefully, during a break in that relationship, he fathered a third son with a different woman – and then not only came clean to the future Mrs. Union-Wade, but sought to remain present in that child’s life. (After a reconciliation and marriage, and several attempts at becoming pregnant, the couple conceived a daughter via surrogacy in 2018.)
And in the most shocking fatherhood twist of all, Wade more recently made headlines with the revelation that his 12-year-old son Zion is now his daughter Zaya. As the embodiment of raw masculinity explained to Metelus’s lens about the (easy!) decision to support his transgender kid, “My job is to help you become who you are – but I’m not trying to change who you are. I see you how you see you. I stand for you.” Ultimately, D. Wade: Life Unexpected is not a profile of a b-ball great so much as a case study in healthy positive parenting. And, just as importantly, in what it truly means to represent as a man.
NB: Given the coronavirus pandemic, cinemas are not generally open so you may not be able to view this film at this time.