The media scrum’s done, training camp begins, and flights are getting delayed. Yet Dwyane Wade made it to the facility. No, he’s not suiting up for Miami once more, unfortunate as it is. He is at the training camp over 2,000 miles from Kaseya Center. Not many NBA teams except the Utah Jazz can boast having one of the owners not only join them on the floor but also bust their behinds in drills. D-Wade is a different kind of owner who can show these players how it’s done. Hopefully his reunion with Kevin Love didn’t go the way it did in 2017.
But it was getting there that was the problem. Between his trips to New York, Miami, and even Cannes, D-Wade is yet to splurge on a charter plane. So he’s not immune to the problems of commercial flying. Unfortunately his flight to Utah was delayed and there was no way he was missing camp.
He got the next available flight which turned out to be a milestone for him that he had to share on his Stories. “This morning I flew Southwest! I haven’t flown SW in about 20 years but they came thru today when my other flight was hella delayed. So thank you!”
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We can imagine he didn’t pick Southwest for two decades for reasons a lot of frequent flyers don’t like to. For everything that’s said about the airline, D-Wade was glad they saved him from the delay today. He made it to Salt Lake City safely and was immediately sharing updates from the Zions Bank Basketball Campus.
“The grind has begun! NBA Training Camp is here! @utahjazz,” he wrote on his Stories this time between little updates about the Ace Cup, his inaugural golf tournament that’s coming to Pebble Beach soon.
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Golf was how he came into team ownership. A few rounds with Ryan Smith, the majority owner of the $3.75 billion franchise, and Wade bought a minority stake in the Jazz in 2021 with intent to be a very hands-on owner. And he definitely is.
Jazz practice is meaningful for Dwyane Wade
Southwest brought Dwyane Wade to Utah right on time. From the looks of it on his Stories, the practice court was still empty, just right for Wade to do a shootaround by himself. Apart from flying Southwest, a practice is something he’s doing for the first time in a while since retiring in 2019. “I hadn’t shot a ball in so long, but still felt good!” he said in one post.
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Will Wade be bringing the Heat Culture 2010 military camp style? Highly unlikely. Only last week he spoke about how much he hated that famous 2010 camp under Pat Riley. But the Jazz might need some of that energy that carried Miami to three championships.
After media day, it was obvious that the Jazz want to focus on a new young core. Yet it’s never complete without some veteran guidance. They’ve imported that right from Miami with Kevin Love and Dwyane Wade. Since it was confirmed that Love is joining his first training camp in Utah, this is also his reunion with Wade.
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They didn’t play together in Miami but they were teammates during D-Wade’s short stint in Cleveland. In the sunset stage of his career, Wade called out the Cavs starters for not doing a good enough job. Love’s mental health struggles would cause him to zone out which angered Wade more. Compounded with him butting heads with Love and Isaiah Thomas, fans criticized him. Love, however, defended Wade back then yet his future boss carries a lot of regret.
In 2022, Wade expressed, “Kevin Love may not like me as a person because of that moment, but if I ever got the opportunity to see him again, I’d just want to apologize to him.” Could this be it? We’d have to look for more updates from camp to find out.