Links: Dwyane Wade’s Letter
Grind-ing!
Sam wrote earlier today about when the office flooded this week. I missed this momentous event because I was on the road, grinding, working. Only this time, I’m not even allowed to say where I was. I can say that I am allowed to talk about where I was and what I did on Jan. 1, 2008, and I had such an amazing time that I’m going to write a post and set it to go live at midnight on New Year’s. So wherever you are at midnight New York time, give someone a kiss, take a drink of whatever, and then log onto SLAMonline. It’ll be worth it, promise.
In the meantime, I’m trying to maintain. I’m on the road again right now, on a different trip than the one I was on during the week. I realized I’ve been traveling a lot the other day when I flew to a city with a couple of different airports but didn’t have any idea which airport I was in until I arrived at that airport. I’m tired. My eyes are stinging. And I have so much writing to do that I’m actually kind of afraid.
Right now I’m watching ESPN’s Lakers/Kings preseason game, and I hate to say it, but I kind of like the studio crew of STEPHEN A SMITH, Jalen Rose and Mark Jones. Wait…as I wrote that, Mark Jones was talking about Spurs rookie Ian Mahinmi, and he noted that the Spurs continue to import “good gems” from overseas. As opposed to bad gems? That’s the Worldwide Leader in Sports, doing their thing! Glad that some things never change.
But some things do change, and The Links is one of those things. I know I wrote a few weeks ago that my goal was to post something every day, but it’s just not happening. A few years ago, I was able to do that because Ryan and Russ and them were busy cranking out the magazine. Now I’m helping crank out the magazine, and it’s really hard to do that and write stuff at the same time. Still, my goal remains to write stuff here every day, and I have a few ideas of ways to increase my productivity. For instance, don’t be surprised if you get a lot more late night posts on The Links. I’ve got other plans, too, but hang in there…
At the same time, I’m loving the stuff from Sam and Holly and everyone else running the takeover here on SLAMonline. When I hired Sam, I told him, “You know how when you have a job and it seems like your boss isn’t doing any work and it feels like you’re doing everything? Well, it’s going to feel that way for a while, but trust me, I’ll be working and at the same time I hope you’ll be learning how to do my job.” I don’t know if Sam even remembers that, but he’s taken my old job and run with it. Go on with your bad self.
I’ve still got three parts of the NBA Preview from me and Gilbert to post, but the flood seems to have wiped out the flash videos, so I’ve got our girl Lisa re-converting the files for me. When I get those from her, I’ll post them all at the same time. SLAMonline used to be me, a copy of Dreamweaver and an iBook. Now we’ve got like a staff and tech support people and everything. And we can’t do what we do without all the people behind the scenes you never hear about, from our man Andrew Pitt to Jonathan and Lisa.
But I still have a gig here, and I keep getting my hands on some cool stuff. I got a copy of the new Dwyane Wade Converse commercial, but I think the email I sent to our computer folk asking them to convert the video into a flash thing for our site got wiped out by the floods. Here’s the spot on YouTube, though.
The story behind the commercial is pretty cool: It stems from a letter to basketball that Dwyane wrote. Here’s a story about that letter.
And — and this is the dope part — this is the actual letter, in Dwyane’s handwriting and everything. I love that he still uses a spiral-bound notebook…
57 Responses to “Links: Dwyane Wade’s Letter”
Oct.27 at 1:12 am
rashaan says:
dope
Oct.27 at 2:14 am
Holly MacKenzie says:
that gave me chills. Love that he sent it out to everyone without them knowing who it was about. Also love that it is his story in his own words. Thanks for sharing this, Lang.
Oct.27 at 3:22 am
John says:
I wrote a similar essay in English, it really opened my mind and I understood that basketball is so much more than a game to me, and probably so many others.
Oct.27 at 4:18 am
Tariq says:
I appreciate Wade’s love for the game, but I’m pretty sure he just ripped off some Air Supply lyrics/ Jerry Maguire dialogue and inserted the word “basketball” sporadically. Mocking perennial all-stars in the morning is very refreshing.
Oct.27 at 4:40 am
peteb80 says:
Dwade epitomizes the vulnerable intellectual from an age lost in the mist of modernization. He is so OUTSPOKEN.
Oct.27 at 4:45 am
Madtice says:
I love it how he writes the “Y” in a very girly way at several occassions. And I love the fact that basketball players aren’t afraid to do ‘arty’ stuff. I mean, usually the love for basketball gets captured in some ink on an upperarm, not in a small poetic piece of literature. Dwayne Wade, now even more my hero!
Oct.27 at 5:22 am
Tariq says:
Madtice…”piece of literature”?!
Oct.27 at 5:42 am
Justin Adler says:
Really ill letter. Much better than falling down a lot and getting up a couple more times.
Oct.27 at 9:12 am
rashaan says:
sorta reminds me of jordan’s farewll letter he wrote. both are expressing their love of basketball. i couldn’t agree with ether letter more. passion and love.
Oct.27 at 11:34 am
white hot eboy says:
D-Wade=better writer than Ryan Jones.
Oct.27 at 12:29 pm
price says:
Flash is biting a little bit of Common’s I used to Love H.E.R. It’s cool though, you never expect a basketball player to become a great lyricist in any sense (Shaq-fu, C-Webb, Jet Terry etc.)
Oct.27 at 12:35 pm
Permaculture says:
Well that was a “good gem” that you wouldn’t get on TV–at least not without a stentorian voiceover and gold, blurry visual effects over still photography. Madtice: Love the “real” Ys myself.
Oct.27 at 1:55 pm
Adams says:
Seriously how can you people be so naive? It’s not like some bully pulled this out of his schoolbag to embarass him in front of his classmates. I doubt that he wrote it himself and even if he did he’s still willing to sell out his “emotional side” to make some (more) cash. Pathetic. And now everybody should feel sorry for him because he was not allowed to play that year because he was just too dumb or lazy? And I assume he didn’t even have to pay for college. What a hero. ( I guess he’s going to the free throw line now…)
Oct.27 at 5:26 pm
detroit says:
This is lame!
Dwyane wade is so fake, I doubt he wrote that. I think it is a way for him to appear as the sensitive guy, so that he can appeal to more people. I don’t know maybe its because I hate him but I think this letter is the fakest thing I have ever read, right down to the girly handwriting and spiral paper (i’m just suprised it wasn’t some girly stationary)
Oct.27 at 7:51 pm
Bruno says:
wade sucksss
Oct.27 at 10:15 pm
white hot eboy says:
Let’s all rally around true heroes like Michael Vick and JR Smith. They have it going on!!!! Idiots!!!!
Oct.27 at 11:08 pm
John from Miami says:
Dwyane Wade is an outstanding person as well as an excellent player. There is no way someone can think that he “sucks”, he is true to life and true to the game. I wish I can say the same about the haters.
Oct.27 at 11:19 pm
Jose says:
now i know why jj reddick was crying from him being a poet
Oct.28 at 4:38 am
Tariq says:
Say what you want about Wade, but I actually really like spiral notebooks. As Khalid would say: F*ck the haters!
Oct.28 at 5:44 am
Adams says:
Let’s all rally around some dudes who sell every aspect of their (fake) lives. Idiot. I wouldn’t be surprised if Wade would use his divorce in a commercial next: “She said we were gonna be together forever. I bought her all those body parts. She never told me I couldn’t keep it in my pants once I was famous. Converse”
Oct.28 at 6:58 am
white hot eboy says:
It’s called branding. EVERY sport and it’s best players have the same thing done. If he wrote the letter in 2002, I’m sure visions of commercials and slogans weren’t going through his mind then.
Oct.28 at 7:07 am
Adams says:
Well, they are doing their best to brand him as a corporate wh0re. You know there’s some guys with some integrity in that regard, Nash for example? Or even Gilbert, while putting himself out there in every way possible, seems like a real person.
Oct.28 at 7:33 am
peteb80 says:
I was a huge Dwade fan and I still find his game absolutely captivating (while it’s pretty dubious that he just can’t shoot the 3). At the beginning of his career he used to be the humble and quiet underdog, kind of the Anti-Lebron. But since his “championship” that completely changed. The NBA decided to make him one of its superstars and he seems to have totally embraced the hype, fancy hats, riding with Diddy and all that (Have you seen the pictures of his house? Wade as Spiderman in his bathroom, how narcissistic can you get?). It made him really unbearable for me. And you just can not avoid him, he’s in so many commercials.
Oct.28 at 9:01 am
H to the izzo says:
Can anyone name an NBA star that isn’t a “corporate whore”?
Oct.28 at 12:19 pm
Tarzan Cooper says:
izzo, your mom is half of that phrase. and she is not a corporation, though she is certainly big enough to be confused for one.
Oct.28 at 1:18 pm
white hot eboy says:
Boys???! Let’s not make a horrible example to the weekenders. And Izzo, your statement is pretty much on point.
Oct.28 at 1:24 pm
H to the izzo says:
Eboy:The EmoIrish thing hurt me deeply
Oct.28 at 4:07 pm
white hot eboy says:
Izzo, that whole “Emo” thing has taken on a life of it’s own on this website since the introduction of Bryan Shia Labouef to the everyday discussions.
Oct.28 at 4:32 pm
H to the izzo says:
But I don’t get calling me an Emo,oh and I’m purposely ignore “The Stupid”
Oct.28 at 5:45 pm
white hot eboy says:
Tarzan, BETCATS and Chukaz have all contributed hillarity here at some point and all must be bonded by some etheral matter through the fiber optic lines of the “internets”.
Oct.28 at 6:38 pm
BK says:
this letter is in the DWADE add in SLAM ish 113.
Oct.28 at 7:03 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Anyone else reminded of this? http://www.answer.google.com/answers/threadview?id=204674
Oct.28 at 7:04 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Remember the “open letter to basketball” that Michael Jordan published as a full-page ad in the New York Times when he retired? I do.
Oct.28 at 9:27 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
*adds third comment to apologize for second, now redundant comment, and thank Holly or whoever for moderating the first comment on a Sunday night*
Oct.28 at 9:28 pm
Holly MacKenzie says:
I like it even though its total cliche. I think I like it because it reminds me of the many essays, poems and stanzas that I wrote about the game all through middle school english classes. Anytime I get to hear players talk about their love of the game I appreciate it. Even if Wade is using that love of the game as a marketing tool, its better than seeing some of the other sides of the nba that have been front and center all summer.
Oct.28 at 9:28 pm
Rubens says:
my girlfriend will be so mad that i’ll leave the new year’s party to check the links… oh well…
Oct.29 at 8:55 am
Gerard Himself says:
Russ: I never read the Jordan letter, thank you for posting that link.
Oct.29 at 10:49 am
Allenp says:
Damn, some random hate for Wade. Why do people get so angry at ballplayers like they personally spit on them or effed their girl?
Oct.29 at 11:25 am
Hisham says:
Because there’s probably a good chance that they did eff their girl
Oct.29 at 11:28 am
Ryan Jones says:
He loved basketball before he loved his mom. I respect that.
Oct.29 at 11:36 am
Jared says:
Pete and Adam I absoutely feel you guys…but you can’t hate on what the media and society make you, or Sternbot and the refs for that matter…I said in the 03 preseason that Dwade is gonna kill but not get the recognition cause of bron and melo, by 06 he gets every call, is on the cover of every mag, and is in every commercial. You gonna tell a guy to refuse to go to the free throw line every time he gets breathed on? You gonna tell a guy to turn down millions to endorse products? You gonna tell a guy who probably wished he could be MJ growing up, not to try his hardest to be MJ? I don’t really appreciate his game anymore, but he’s living the life…the life that everyone blogging on this website WISHES they could live, matter of fact, we would die for it. We would probably all give anything to be the 14th man on the bench to get dunked on by DWade in practice. He’s makin it big…respect
Oct.29 at 12:33 pm
Rasheedionics says:
I like Jared’s letter more than D Wade’s.
Oct.29 at 1:09 pm
white hot eboy says:
I like Jared’s letter, but I wouldn’t die to be be D-Wade. Megan Fox’s favorite pair of jeans, yes, but not D-Wade.
Oct.29 at 1:23 pm
Holly MacKenzie says:
what the heck is megan fox doing with david silver anyway?!
Oct.29 at 1:31 pm
white hot eboy says:
Holly, I wonder that each time my son watches his Transformers DVD. And she’s one of the small, small handful of females that my wife knows I would ride out with if my fantasies could actually come true.
Oct.29 at 11:46 pm
JpT says:
dwade’s handwriting is awful. i though he wrote that when he was 7 or something. damn.
Oct.30 at 12:37 am
Quan says:
After reading that, I started to bump I Used To Love H.E.R. That was a bit deep. One Love.
Oct.30 at 1:42 pm
SLAM ONLINE | » Win Dwyane Wade’s Autographed Shoe says:
[…] How do you win it? Simple: Last weekend I posted a copy of the love letter to basketball that Dwyane Wade wrote over the summer. Now it’s your turn. You’ve got until Friday at noon to write your own love letter to basketball, down in the comments section below. Our friends at Converse will pick a winner. […]
Oct.30 at 8:38 pm
Clay says:
In Winter of 2006, my seventh grade year had been underway. I can’t believe how you could reject me like that. I felt like you gave me a curse, like I couldn’t win you over no matter how hard I tried. You said I wasn’t good enough for you. You made me feel abandoned and alone.
Nov.3 at 9:06 pm
yo mamma says:
i feel da same way suga
Nov.5 at 7:50 pm
ballin says:
u sexist loserrr madtice
Nov.9 at 10:15 am
Kobeagain says:
he should write a book
Nov.12 at 10:16 pm
ANTONIO says:
NBA EVER SINCE I HEAR U SPEAK EVR SINCE I SEEN UR BEAUTFULL BLUE RED AND WHITE SYMBOL I NEW I WOULD LOVE U . IN MY HEAD I ALWAYS THOUGHT WHO IS THIS MAN U HAVE CHOOSEN TO REPRESENT U TO THE WORLD THE TALL INVISIBLE MAN I WISHED U WOULD UN COVER THE WHIT COAT OVER THIS BEAUTFULL MAN I HAVE DREAMENT ABOUT THE DAY THAT MY BODY FACE WOULD SHOW UP . I WATED ALL SUMMER ALL YEAR UNTILL YOU REAPEAR YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ME WANTING MORE AND MORE U GIVE ME 32 GAMES OF MY FAVORTE TEAMS . U GIVE THE BIGGEST GAME OF ALL THE FINALS, AND BEFORE IT STARTS I CRY AGAIN CUZ I KNOW U ARE GOING TO LEAVE ME ALL ALONE TO DEFFEND MY SELF WITH ALL THESE OTHER SPORTS THAT DONT EVEN COMPARE AND LIVE UP TO UR STATIS UR LEVEL. U ARE THE MOST BEAUTFULL WOMEN IN MY LIFE AND IF I EVER SEE ME I WOULD BE ON MY NEES BEGGING U TO SAY YES .YES THAT U WOULD BE WITH ME BECAUSE UNTILL THEN I WISH U GOOD HEALTH AND LIFE AND LOVE CUZ COME TIP OFF I WOULD BE WACHING TO SEE U SHOW UR BEAUTIFUL VOICE I WILL ALL WAYS LOVE U. UR LOVER ANTONIO
Nov.14 at 8:53 pm
brett says:
basketball…i love you beyond imagination…i love you soo much that words cant describe it. You were always there for me when i was down or when i was in need of fun. you have always done good to me when i felt like i could not be cheered up. I love you Basketball.
Nov.14 at 9:10 pm
brett says:
Whenever I was down you were always there for me. If i was feeling down you would always cheer me up. If I couldn’t rely on my family I could always rely on you. You were the only sport that really turned me on. You are so entergetic! I could never get old of you. That is why i love you, my one of two loves, my first. I love you
Nov.28 at 10:21 pm
Joseph says:
work hard, play hard, and then u will overcome. what u wanna be or what u wanna do, just keep on doing what u do and u will be there. i love basketball so much that i try to stay away but i already know that i cant. the hard work outs and all the learning to become some one that i am trying to be, i will never stop trying.
Jan.17 at 2:51 pm
Lorrie says:
I love Dwayne Wade, he is gorgeous and humble and very talented. LOVE HIM!!!!