Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade said life after basketball will include making visits to a clinician.
“I’ll be in therapy. Seriously,” Wade said in an exclusive interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols that aired yesterday on The Jump. “I meant it, it is going to be a big change. I told my wife, I said, ‘I need to do therapy, and we need to do a little bit.’
“I was always against someone that don’t know me telling me how to live my life or giving me instructions. But I need someone to talk to about it. Because it is a big change. Even though I got a long life to live, other great things I can accomplish and do, it’s not this. So it’s going to be different.”
Including last night’s road contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wade has four regular-season games remaining on his retirement tour as the Heat try to qualify for the playoffs in a four-team battle for three spots. But if his season ends sooner rather than later, the three-time NBA champion and 2006 Finals MVP will walk away happy.
“I have no idea what it is I want to do yet,” said Wade, who is averaging 14.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists this season.
“But I definitely know I want to do a little bit of everything. Especially in the beginning, I want to see what I can be great at. I’m so used to being great at something or trying to strive to be great at something. That’s what I want to be at whatever else I choose to do. We’ll see.
“It’s been surreal. It’s like you — you have this vision of, you know, how you want things to go, right? With everything in life. And when something, you know, surpasses that vision, it’s kinda like it’s an out-of-body experience,” Wade added.
“I couldn’t have written this book any better. This is a best-seller. And I couldn’t have written it, about my life.”
Wade’s final regular-season home game will be Tuesday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I’m gonna go out the way D-Wade’s supposed to go out. You know what I mean?” Wade said. “And like, I think it helps, too, that we are in this playoff battle. ‘Cause I’m just trying to win.”
