It says something about popular culture when it’s news that a sports star runs toward the responsibilities of fatherhood rather than away from them.
Such is the case with Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade: he’s making headlines for being a father willing to fight for custody of his children.
We don’t know if Wade is more qualified than his former wife to have custody or not. That was for a court to decide, and that’s what a court in Illinois recently did when it awarded the basketball player “care, custody and control” of his two boys.
Said Wade of the decision, “a huge weight is off my back.”
He learned of the court’s decision last Friday. He told his teammates of the decision Saturday after a game in which he had one of his best performances. Coincidence? Maybe not.
“I heard the best news I could possibly hear,” he told the AP. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to go out there and play free and enjoy it.'”
The hoops star divorced the boys’ mother, Siohvaughn Wade, last summer. They have yet to reach a financial settlement in the case.
She is to have “regular parenting time” every other weekend in Miami, as well as at other times such as Mother’s Day.
The boys’ father has made it clear that he wants his sons to have a strong relationship with their mother.
The Chicago court was less generous in its ruling, in which the judge stated that Wade’s ex-wife had for two years been attempting to alienate her children from their father.
She had claimed that her former husband was abusive toward the children; a claim the court rejected.
Dwayne Wade declined to gloat over his legal triumph, saying instead that he’s happy to have the opportunity to be a father to his children and that he looks forward to learning together with them.
Resource: Associated Press: “Dwyane Wade wins custody fight for sons”: March 14, 2011