Former NBA Star Dwyane Wade Reveals Cancer Diagnosis Following Kidney Surgery

by Alessio AtriaFebruary 2, 2025, 3:37 pmHome Featured, News >

Former Miami Heat point guard Dwyane Wade disclosed that he was diagnosed with cancer after he received kidney surgery.

On Jan. 30, Wade made this revelation on the latest episode of his podcast, The Why with Dwyane Wade, while speaking with his co-host Bob Metelus.

He shared that he “went in to get myself checked” and told the doctor that he had “some stomach issues.”

“These are the things I want us to check, but also check everything,” he told the doctor.

“So on that process of checking the certain cramps that I feel at times, like, ‘Man, why is my p— coming out slow? Why is my stream ain’t powerful? Why is [it] a little weak?’ Like, I’m asking these questions because now my – my father has went through something, and now I know that if the man who birthed me brought me here is going through this, it’s possibly that I may go through it,” Wade added.

The former Miami Heat point guard noted the doctors “did the full body scan” and “were able to see” a tumor on his right kidney, which could only be removed by undergoing surgery.

“Thank God that I did do the surgery because the tumor was cancerous,” he noted.

“So I have one kidney, and I have another kidney that is 60% – they took 40% of my kidney to make sure that they can get all the cancer off of it because if it sits there on your kidney now, it spreads,” Wade said. “I think it was the first time my family, my dad, my kids – they saw me weak. That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life. The moments that I was by myself, I didn’t like I was struggling.”

“And one thing you never want to do as a man, you never want your family to see you weak,” he declared. “It’s tough. [You] don’t want to be perceived as weak, and you don’t want to be seen in your weak moments, but I had to.”

“Fortunately for me, man, my family got in – they jumped in, and man, what I saw in the midst of that and me going through my illness, I saw my family who may not always talk, may not always agree, you know, what I mean, don’t always see each other,” he recalled.

“I saw everybody show up for me and be there for me, and that, in that process of my weakness, I found strength in my family, in my friends, [and] in my group,” he also stated.

“And so, that right there, that moment that I went through that and I told myself before I went under anesthesia, when I was like, ‘When I – if I come out of this – if the Lord bring me out of this right, I’m going to do things differently,'” the former point guard recounted. “And I came out of that, and I’ve been doing things differently, and I’ve been attacking life.”

During an interview with Rachel Nichols in May 2023, Wade stated that he and his family moved out of Florida to ensure the safety of his daughter, Zaya Wade, who came out as transgender in 2020.

Many people speculated that the point guard indirectly referred to a bill signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). This bill forbids educators from teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through the third grade.

On Jan. 14, 2024, Miami Heat president Pat Riley announced the commencement of a project to build a statue to continue honoring Wade during a halftime ceremony in their 104-87 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.

Riley’s team had commissioned sculptors Omri Amrany and Oscar Leon to make the statue.

The eight-foot-tall bronze sculpture, which honored Wade’s iconic “this is my house” celebration during the 2009 double-overtime win against the Chicago Bulls, was unveiled outside of Kaseya Center on October 27, 2024.

The former point guard’s fans quickly ridiculed the statue on social media for its odd look.