Dwyane Wade is among the NBA’s best players of the past 20 years and will be a sure-fire Hall of Fame inductee whenever his career is finished, whether he retires this summer or decides to come back next yer.
As Wade has transitioned into life as a veteran in the NBA, he’s taken on an even bigger responsibility within the Miami community and beyond in various ways, embracing his status and opportunity to effect change. This year we saw him use his platform to support those impacted by the Stoneman Douglas shooting tragedy, including bringing the family of one of the students who was killed to a game after learning he was buried in a Wade jersey.
On Wednesday, Wade brought comfort to one of his fans when he dropped by Ellen to surprise James Shaw, the man that stopped a shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee. Shaw is a huge basketball fan and revealed Wade is his favorite player, so Ellen DeGeneres called in a favor and Wade flew out to the studio to surprise Shaw on air and thank him for his bravery.
It’s a touching moment and you can see how much it meant to Shaw when Wade came out to surprise him. Wade said that he hopes his kids can look at someone like Shaw as a role model for how to act, not only in his heroics at the Waffle House but also in what he’s done since, raising north of $150,000 for the families of the victims of the shooting.
