Photo: Dwyane Wade/Instagram
Dwyane Wadehas been a parent for 18 years now, but that doesn’t mean he has fatherhood completely figured out.
The NBA legend, 38, spoke with PEOPLE ahead of the premiere of his documentaryD. Wade: Life Unexpected, where he opened up about, among other aspects of his life, how his perspective of parenthood has changed since he welcomed his first child, now-18-year-old sonZaire.
Admitting he’s “always scared” as a parent, Wade — who’s also dad toKaavia James, 15 months,Xavier Zechariah, 6, andZaya, 12, as well as the guardian of nephewDahveon Morris, 18 — says he’s “scared in a different way now” than when he became a first-time father at barely 20 years old.
“Now he’s 18 and I’m like, ‘He’s about to go to college’ — I’m even more scared,” Wade says. “When a kid is born, they don’t come out with a pamphlet that’s like, ‘Okay, these are the directions for this kid.’ So you just figure it out and try to help raisesomeone who’s good and kind, andjust characteristics that you want your kids to hopefully have. And that’s in you already.”
“You’re afraid because you don’t want to mess up; you don’t want anything to happen to them,” he continues. “But I think, ultimately, we all have itinside of us to help lead someone, whether that’s your kids, godson or goddaughter, niece or nephew, coworker — we all have it in us to lead. It’s no different when you have a kid.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Despite the difficulties of being a dad to a newly minted adult, Wade is dedicated to being Zaire’s biggest support system in all areas of life, and tells PEOPLE he’s “in the passenger’s seat” as opposed to the backseat as far as his oldest child’s basketball-related future is concerned.
“He’s in the driver’s seat,” the athlete says of Zaire, who plays basketball on the same high school team asLeBron James‘ 15-year-old sonLeBron Raymone Jr.,a.k.a. Bronny. “He has a dream, like I had a dream and like we all have dreams. And his dream is to play professional basketball in the NBA. But also [I am] letting him know that his path just may not be the same as people around him.”
“So if basketball is the ultimate goal, then I’m just trying to help him along the way, understanding there’s so many different ways to get to this goal,” Wade says. “It’s not just one way — it’s not go through high school, be a superstar. [Get] into college, be a superstar. Get drafted No. 1 and now you’re there.”
“There’s so many different ways toget to the NBA or to get that path,” he adds. “So [I’m] just trying to help him navigate through expectations that the world has put on him, and that he puts on himself, because of his last name.”
Cassy Athena/Getty
RELATED VIDEO: Dwyane Wade Trades Basketballs for Bottles in Sweet Instagram
But that doesn’t mean Wade doesn’t liketo tease his son once in a while: “There’s moments where I embarrass him sometimes on purpose, and sometimes just because I’m older and I’m not as cool as I used to be.”
D. Wade: Life Unexpectedpremieres Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
source: people.com
