IT’s one thing to hear about it and another to feel it firsthand.
NBA Hall-of-Famer Dwyane Wade is in awe after finally experiencing Filipinos’ passion for basketball during his “TADHANA: Make Your Own Way Manila Tour.”
“Just coming here, just looking into people’s eyes, like it’s real (their love for basketball), you know, I heard it and then you have to feel it,” said Wade in a media availability on Tuesday.
A 13-time All-Star and a three-time champion with the Miami Heat, Wade said he felt the Filipinos’ passion for basketball literally everywhere, including the bathroom at the airport.
“I think that’s the [excitement] and the nervousness when all of the feelings and emotions [are] what I feel, because everything that everyone said about the Philippines, and they’ve said about the sport and they’ve said about myself,” said Wade.
“I see it in everyone’s eyes. I feel it in the hugs. I feel it when I go into the bathrooms. I went to the bathroom at the airport and everybody stopped. It was different.
“But it was just really cool just to know, like, you know, what everyone has told me about this community and this culture. Like they say basketball, this is the first love.”
Wade also held fan events on Tuesday at the BGC Amphitheater in Taguig, where he received a customized shoe and a charcoal painting from a fan who traveled hours just to meet him.
The NBA legend worked out with the 2026 Palarong Pambansa secondary basketball champion Calabarzon, too.
The region is represented by St. John’s Wort Integrated School with players Dairick Duterte, Ali Matthew Mamauag and Rainheart Panaligan having the chance to train with Wade.
The 6-foot-4 Wade is expected to grace the UAAP Season 89 men’s basketball games on Wednesday.