Retired NBA champion and onetime Chicago Bull Dwyane Wade has joined the WNBA’s Chicago Sky ownership group, ESPN reported.
Wade told the sports outlet, “It’s a great opportunity to be a part of the league in its very early stages. … Growth is going to happen, and so I want to be a part of the growth of this league.”
Wade’s interest in the WNBA made waves last month after he was seen visiting a Sky practice in Deerfield, Illinois. The Chicago native has also joined the ownership groups for the NBA’s Utah Jazz and Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake.
Just two years after its first WNBA championship in 2021, the team is in the middle of transition after James Wade left for an NBA assistant coaching job earlier this month. This past offseason, Candace Parker and Courtney Vandersloot opted to play for other teams, while Allie Quigley and Emma Meesseman also did not return.
Wade is also known as an LGBTQ+ ally, with he and wife Gabrielle Union being the parents of trans daughter Zaya.
—Andrew Davis