Dwyane Wade made the bold decision to leave the Miami Heat in free agency for his hometown Chicago Bulls. According to the 12-time All-Star, some helpful advice from his wife Gabrielle Union helped put him on that path.
Wade told CSN Chicago’s Mark Schanowski in an interview that he was hesitant to explore the possibility of signing with Chicago because he was concerned Jimmy Butler might not be willing to share the spotlight. That’s where Union came in.
“I was in Spain on vacation and I remember talking to my wife before I talked to Jimmy [Butler],” Wade told CSN Chicago’s Schanowski.
“She asked me about Chicago and I said, ‘Baby I don’t know how open Jimmy is going to be to it.’ And she said, ‘You never know. You should reach out to him.'”
Wade then had his contact information passed along to Butler, who reached out almost immediately. Butler’s positive response really made Wade seriously consider signing with the Bulls.
“Sometimes people have a hard time with sharing the light and he was right away saying, ‘Listen, I want to win…I know what you bring to the game and I know we can win together and I want you here,'” Wade recalled Butler saying.
It was after that conversation that Wade began seriously considering signing with the Bulls. In the end, he ended up signing with the team for $47 million.
This latest information also seems to support Wade’s previous comments that he was not pushed out of Miami by Pat Riley and that maybe he really did want to go elsewhere on his own. If all works out well in Chicago, the Bulls may have to give credit to Union for the biggest assist of the offseason.
