Basketball icon Dwyane Wade said he’s always been a fan of the WNBA, but he credits his family as a major reason as to why he’s an investor now, too. 

His 5-year-old daughter, Kaavia, who he shares with actor Gabrielle Union, was the biggest influence when it came to becoming part owner of the Chicago Sky in 2023.

“The big part of that is that my son, Zaire, grew up and he had a dream of being in the NBA,” Wade said. “He had a dream of being like his favorite players. You understand the importance of role models and so, I want my daughter to have that same feeling.”

One emerging role model in the WNBA is rookie star forward Angel Reese, who plays for the Chicago Sky. 

“She’s owning it. She is owning who she is. She wants to be great and she wants to be a great teammate. And so, our conversations, when we do talk, it’s about that and giving her that confidence to continue to be that.”

Now a mentor to athletes in the game, Wade said Reese has helped propel women’s sports into the spotlight.

“The women showed up when the lights were the brightest and that started back last year when Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark had that national championship moment,” Wade said. “It’s just like anything that we want to do in life. You work and you just prepare for your moment. You don’t know when it’s going to come always.”

Beyond basketball, the NBA legend is creating change with his daughter Zaya, who is transgender and an LGBTQ advocate. Together, the father-daughter duo have launched “Translatable Project,” which is an online resource for the young LGBTQ community and their families.

Wade said Zaya has been his biggest inspiration and best educator.

“She wants to make real impact. When I sat down with Zaya and said, ‘OK, what does that look like for you?’ She wanted what she didn’t have and that’s, you know, obviously resources where we all need.” 

So, Wade said, they reached out to the Human Rights Campaign to “help us make impact.”

When it comes to the future of women’s basketball, Wade said his hope is for equality.

“I want, you know, young girls, grow up and know that, you know, this league is a league that can do the same thing for them that, like, it did for our family,” he said. “It can change your life.”

Jericka Duncan

Jericka Duncan is a national correspondent and the anchor for Sunday’s edition of the “CBS Weekend News.” Duncan is an Emmy-nominated journalist who has received several awards for her reporting, including two National Edward R. Murrow Awards and honors from the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, which named her Journalist of the Year in 2012.