Dwyane Wade retired after 17 years in the NBA. He had a massively successful career and was, during his career, one of the most respected guys in the league. He’s married to Gabrielle Union and Gabrielle was recently on The Late Show, and she joked about Wade’s retirement life. It hasn’t been the smoothest transition, because after so many years, Wade has been trying to go out and do things for himself, like shop for groceries and clothes. And the prices are freaking him out. Gabrielle told James Corden that her husband thought a gallon of milk cost $20 and that Wade was “in awe” of Old Navy. Well, Wade gave an interview to Sports Illustrated and he was asked about the Old Navy thing. His answer was great:
I wanted to give you a chance to respond to this. Gabrielle Union went on TV and said you freaked out the first time you went to Old Navy. Is that true? What happened?
DW: Okay so, what I was freaking out about—if you want to call it freaking out—was the prices. I’m sure some guys do, but I got to a point, especially being so known in Miami—which is a good thing but at times when it comes to personal life stuff, it can be tough—where I hadn’t been to a store in so long. I had a chef to go shopping, a stylist to do this, all that. I don’t really go shopping, so I don’t really know the prices of stuff.
So I go into Old Navy and I start buying stuff. So I grabbed what I felt was like, [laughs], a lot of stuff, like it’s got to be $100,000. Not a $100,000 but just speaking in that sense. I got up to the register and it was like $500. I was like, “Holy s**t, I thought this was way more.” So I’m kind of freaking out about that kind of stuff. And just to be able to be in L.A. and go shopping and nobody notices me was a cool experience. I never thought I would say that 16 years ago when I wanted people to notice me. Now I’m going places hoping people don’t, so I can enjoy myself and not have anxiety or anything.
I shop at Old Navy online and sometimes I’m surprised by how cheap everything is too. But man, Wade sounds so out-of-touch! It’s sort of cool and sort of… weird. I mean, he grew up in profound poverty and became one of the most successful athletes of the past two decades. Of course he could pay people to do his shopping for him and pick out of his clothes and all of that. But… did he never ask his stylist how much non-designer clothes cost? Also: $500 worth of clothes at Old Navy gets you, like, a dozen pairs of jeans, two dozen t-shirts, three fleeces, two pairs of flip-flops, four sweatshirts and a pack of socks. Plus a coat. And you’d still have enough cash to go out to lunch.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I buy this. He did a interview shortly before his last game and was asked about what life is gonna be like after that. He honestly said that he was in therapy to help with the transition because that part of his life is going to be over and he knew he was going to be at a loss of what to do.
Good on Wade for knowing himself and getting ahead of it.
And yes, total first world answer.
Yeah, I think he has been very open about how weird the transition has been. He said once (or Gabrielle said it) that his whole life has been basketball, so its going to be weird to figure out what’s next. And he made so much money, plus traveled so much etc – that I can see how he hasn’t shopped for himself in years.
I can imagine it’s really hard to stop doing the one thing you’ve always done. Even a lot of regular people have trouble when the retire, unless they have hobbies or something else to focus on. (I would not be one of those people!).
I also thought he sounded endearingly open and honest. They seem like a really lovely couple. I wish him all the best post-NBA career.
I’m stuck on picturing just how much 100k can get someone at Old Navy. That’d be like 3 years worth of clothing, or more. $500 buys a lot there too but a $100, 000??? You could fill a pool full of cargo shorts and swim around like a bargain shopper Scrooge McDuck.
“bargain shopper Scrooge McDuck” made me lol
I can complete two kids winter season a-z for $500 at Old Navy. You can buy the entire contents of the store for $100k and have money left over.
I am a trashy reality show fan and used to love watching WAGS, because I am super cool like that. A couple times, it touched on how the husbands (who were mostly ex-NFL players) had such a difficult time with returning to “real life” once they retired from football. They’re in this weird place, coming from a life where football was everything, to a life where they don’t have a job, have so much time to fill, etc. It’s actually kind of sad.
I think this is really sweet and funny. He seems like such a good dad and a good person (messy love life notwithstanding, and if he and Gabrielle worked it out, it’s none of my business) and I hope he enjoys the next chapter of life.