Dwyane Wade is among the NBA stars in New York City this week for the start of New York Fashion Week, and like LeBron James and Ben Simmons, he was looking to put in some work at a local gym. Wade still has not announced if he'll be returning to the Miami Heat next season but, as the saying goes, ball is life.
Wade took to twitter on Wednesday to ask his 7.8m followers, "Where the local hoopers at NYC!?!? The after work hoopers." According to the Miami Herald, Wade then received an Instagram message from Tom Weingarten, who runs social media for Overtime. Shortly thereafter, the three-time NBA champion found himself at Chelsea Pier 60 in Manhattan balling against a group of average Joes.
“He answered immediately,” Weingarten said, according to the Miami Herald. “He wanted to surprise some local fans and do it for them. He said, ‘I’m going to get a haircut and then go to Chelsea Piers.’ He was proactive about it.”
“People couldn’t tell at first it was him until he took his hat off,” said Sam Gordon, the editor in chief of Overtime who played in the game with Wade. “They weren’t fawning over him initially. Then people started hearing he was there and they started gathering and taking selfies. By the end, there were 34 people. He was super relaxed, not full of himself, answering questions.”
“One guy who guarded Dwyane was very intense and called lots of fouls on Dwyane and Dwyane wasn’t happy about it,” Weingarten said. “Guys were aggressive with Dwyane. They weren’t taking it easy on him.”
Check out some of the footage in the posts embedded below.
