[applause and cheering]

Please welcome Dwyane Wade.

[applause and cheering]

>>Dwyane Wade: How ya doin'?

>>presenter: Have a seat, yeah.

[applause]

>>Dwyane Wade: How y'all doin'? How y'all doin'?

>>voices in audience: Good, good.

>>presenter: And welcome to Google.

>>Dwyane Wade: Thank you.

>>presenter: You've never been here before, right?

>>Dwyane Wade: No, I've never been here before only been on the website.

[laughter]

>>presenter: Cool, cool.

[laughter]

Now we're really, we're really excited to have you here today. There's a lotta big fans.

I myself I grew up on South Florida so I was like an original Heat fan, like Rony Seikaly,

[cheering]

Glen Rice, all that stuff.

>>Dwyane Wade: How many people here are from Miami?

[cheering]

>>people in audience: Yeah, yeah.

>>Dwyane Wade: Alright represented, we've got a few.

[laughter]

>>presenter: But so I read, you have a new book out this week and this is part of the

Authors@Google series and the memoir is called A Father First and I thought we could talk

a little about that today and your experience and some of the stuff you discuss in that

book.

And I think, like many people in this room, I and a lot of us knew you as the NBA final,

the two time NBA champion, the NBA Finals MVP, and the guy who took Marquette the Final

Four and all that, but I think --

>>Dwyane Wade: I'm still that person.

>>presenter: Yeah.

[laughter]

I think that story which you definitely tell in the book is sort of almost secondary to

this other sort of set of tales about you. This kid who grew up in a tough life in a

rough part of Chicago and who learned to be, learned he was going to be a father at 19

and I think that, that, do you feel like that's true that, that part of that story, the story

of the guy who had to learn how to make all these tough decisions very early and learn

how to be a father and all that is the primary story of the book?

>>Dwyane Wade: Well, yeah, I think it would have been easy for me to write a book about

basketball but I also think y'all can Google it. [chuckles]

[laughter]

>>presenter: Nice, nice.

[laughter]

>>Dwyane Wade: That was so corny.

[laughter]

I didn't even think about that one it just came to me.

[laughter]

But no, I felt that if I was gonna go down this path I wanted to write something that

I felt was meaningful and I felt that can help others in a sense. So I talked a lot

about my childhood, I talked a lot about my upbringin'.

And I do a lot of foundation work so I know kind of the same struggle that's goin' on

in the inner city, kinda the same way I grew up. So I see kids everyday that's just like

I was and goin' through some of the same issues that I went through. So I took this opportunity

to kind of express that and talk about it because when kids see me and I come and talk

to them they see Dwyane Wade, the two time NBA champion and all these accolades, but

I don't think they necessarily understand that I was them and I remember being in that

same seat and I remember bein' told that I wasn't gonna be successful and I couldn't

do this and I couldn't do that.

So I thought I would take this time in this book and kinda share those personal experiences

through my life. And also the title of the book is A Father First and it's not necessarily

directed to just fathers, I wanted to really express to families that's gonna through the

same issues that I went through whether it's a divorce, or whether it's the battle between

the custody from the kids, and kinda just share my experiences the negative and a positive

of it and hopefully it can help someone look at things in a different way or it can help

them in some facets of their life so hopefully I accomplished that. Oh a little basketball's

in there, too.

>>presenter: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

So why did you decide, I mean the book opens with you getting full custody of Zion and

Zaire --

>>Dwyane Wade: Yeah.

>>presenter: and so why did you decide that you wanted to get this out there?

>>Dwyane Wade: It just, I really don't know. I've never really thought that I was gonna

write a book, I never thought I'd be an author before I always looked at it as hard work,

which it is --

>>presenter: [laughs]

[laughter]

>>Dwyane Wade: but I just felt that I go through everything in life for a reason. It's some

reason I went through this process for many, many years and still going through it today.

And I just know that a lotta guys especially in my league, in the NBA, that come up to

me had a lotta questions, gave 'em hope in a sense.

Before I got custody, I got appointed to the Fatherhood Initiative from our President himself

and to be seen in that field as bein' someone who can speak for fathers in a sense I just

thought it was my duty and my job and obligation to kind of share those experiences with others

hopefully, like I said hopefully it can help them, hopefully it can give them a different

perspective --

>>presenter: Um-hum.

>>Dwyane Wade: on how to handle somethin' because when I was goin' through this custody

battle, it was kinda like shootin' in the dark. You didn't know what was gonna happen

and where the ball's gonna end up. So hopefully if anybody's gonna through the process they

can kinda see, "Well, you know what this is how D. Wade said he dealt with it, this is

what he went through," and they can see this is how hard it's supposed to be, this is as

hard as it's gonna be, just so many different things so.

>>presenter: Yeah. You describe yourself as an introverted guy in the book but there are

some very personal things that you share in there. Were there parts of it that were difficult

for you to sort of explain or put out there and share with the world?

>>Dwyane Wade: Yeah, I mean anytime you're talkin' about your personal life in a sense

is always difficult. I've had to live my life under the microscope in a sense and it's very

public so a lot of things I didn't want to get out got out and I would love to deal with

a lot of things behind closed doors but it's not the hand I was dealt. But I kept a lot

out.

>>presenter: Um-hum.

>>Dwyane Wade: I like to tell people that what you read in here is a little mild version

of my life -- [chuckles]

>>presenter: [chuckles]

[laughter]

>>Dwyane Wade: especially the divorce and the custody battle --

>>presenter: Yeah.

>>Dwyane Wade: it was hectic but, and at the same time it was public so --

>>presenter: Um-hum.

>>Dwyane Wade: you can go find out that kind of information. I didn't wanna really get

too much into it in the book.

>>presenter: I mean there's also some very emotional stuff from when you were a kid growin'

up and some of the experiences with your family and the relationships that you had with them.

Do you think it was easier telling some of the stories especially about your mom and

stuff because it was also sort of a lessons learned tale that you were telling?

>>Dwyane Wade: Yeah, not easy but the lesson learned tale made me really feel comfortable

tellin' it, but it's still not easy today. We was on The View the other day, my mom and

my sister came, and we had a segment and my mom was talkin', I put my head down in there

'cause I almost lost it, I almost went in tears. And it's kinda sometimes like I'm lookin'

at someone else's life when I hear about it or when I think about it it's kind of like

that's not my life, that wasn't me. But it was me. So some of those emotions, some of

those memories come back in a sense so writin' this book was like my therapy, it was kind

of therapeutic --

>>presenter: Um-hum.

>>Dwyane Wade: in a sense. So it's like bein' in a dark room and talkin' to my writer about

my life. And I remember so much, like it started coming back and I remember things like it

was yesterday as well so it was very, very therapeutic.

>>presenter: Yeah. The subtitle of the book is How My Life Became Bigger Than Basketball

and that came from something that your mother used to say to you.

>>Dwyane Wade: Yeah, she's always, she know I loved basketball, she know I wanted to be

a basketball player but she didn't want that to be my only dream. But she always told me,

"Son, you life," she still tell me this day, "Your life is bigger than basketball, your

life is bigger than basketball." I never understood it then 'cause when you're a kid you're like,

"No, I'm gonna play basketball." And that's --

[laughter]

that's what I would do. But I lied I was like, "Yeah, mom I wanna be a doctor --

[laughter]

is that good?" But I didn't wanna be a doctor.

[laughter]

>>presenter: [laughs]

>>Dwyane Wade: [chuckles]

>>presenter: One of the things you talk about in there is with your two sons and your nephew

is man time and man talks right –

>>Dwyane Wade: Yeah.

>>presenter: where you have like these serious conversations about important things with

them.

>>Dwyane Wade: Yeah.

>>presenter: And how important is that in your relationship with them?

>>Dwyane Wade: Well it's very important to give them their time together and apart. Like

I said I had to learn this stuff too, takin' parenting classes, my kids are in therapy

as well, going and sit down with them in therapy sessions and tryin' to learn about them not

thinkin' that just because I was a kid once and now I'm an adult, I have all the answers.

So I understand that man time for them is very important because they want it every

day. "Like I gotta go to a game. You all want man time now?" So they want it all the time

but it's good that they like to hang with me that way and it's not always just fun sometimes

we sit across from each other, and one day it was rainin' so it was like okay we couldn't

go out so I put like a table in my room with chairs all around it, had everybody name on

the chair, had questions for everybody written down on note cards that we asked each other.

And I was sittin' there and it was like real life questions and I want them to know they

can, I'm an open book they can come to me about anything and I want them to feel comfortable

about comin' to me about stuff but I also ask them questions, the tough questions and

I wanna be able to answer it for 'em. So that's one thing that consists of man