AP File PhotoMarquette University’s giddy basketball fans chanted, “One More Year, One More Year,” as junior phenom Dwyane Wade clipped a strand of net after the Golden Eagles’ 83-69 rout of Kentucky in the Midwest Regional final last week in Minneapolis.
The 21-year-old guard from Robbins, Ill., who hasn’t yet decided if he’ll leave the private Milwaukee school for the NBA, merely smiled and waved at his adoring fans after his one-for-the-ages triple-double helped halt Kentucky’s 26-game win streak.
“I love my life,” Wade told the press after his heroic effort.
Wade’s situation may force him to start drawing a paycheck. He and his wife Siohvaughn — his girlfriend since their freshman year of high school — have a 5-year-old son, Zaire.
Another child is on the way.
“I like the idea my life is about more than just me,” the 6-foot-5 Wade told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
For Wade, it’s about his family.
“I have that support at home,” said Wade, who averages 21.6 points off 50.2 percent shooting. “If I am down on myself, I have that support from my wife to pick me up. It’s helped me become more mature.”
Indeed, Wade, the school’s all-time single-season scoring leader with 691 points (Tony Smith had 689 in 1989-90) has actually raised his grade-point average since he got married.
“I’ve grown up a lot. I know I have people who count on me,” Wade said. “But the only difference between myself and my teammates is at the end of the day they go to the dorms and I go to an apartment I live in with my family.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way. I have a great situation, plus the other guys are jealous of me. They know I go home to a well-cooked meal every night.”
And he gets to enjoy the company of his young son.
“Every time he sees basketball on TV, he thinks it’s ‘Da-Da,”’ Wade said. “I want my son to hear good things about me. I really don’t want him hearing anything bad about me. That’s not the kind of person I am.”
Marquette coach Tom Crean calls Wade a leader on and off the court.
“Dwyane is a complete player,” Crean said of the most outstanding player of the Midwest Regional. “What you see with Dwyane Wade is what you get. Dwyane just plays and he just continues to do so many different things on both ends of the floor. All of a sudden at the end of the night his numbers are amazing.”
He’s certainly amazed his teammates.
“His life is much different from ours,” Marquette forward Scott Merritt told the Journal-Constitution. “He has responsibilities we don’t have. The thing that’s impressive is he handles them and doesn’t let them get in the way of his school or basketball.”
As far as his immediate basketball future, he’ll decide after the season. He realizes he’s had three special years of college, years his high school buddy, Eddy Curry of the Chicago Bulls, missed out on by heading straight to the NBA.
“I don’t think he’d give back his money, but I think he would give back a little bit to be part of these moments,” Wade said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “He has never really experienced college basketball, so I don’t think he knows what we go through to get to this point.”
Saturday, the Jayhawks may wish Wade had turned pro earlier. He’s been a load for teams to handle.
“He is a guard but a powerful guard,” Kansas coach Roy Williams said. “He may be the premier perimeter player in the country. I do not see any weaknesses.”
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