Wade backs Kaepernick, has a cause of his own
New Bulls addition Dwyane Wade is all in on what NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been doing throughout the early part of the NFL season.
Wade says he supports any antiviolence statement that athletes can make these days.
“I don’t really have a pulse on what NBA players are doing when it comes to these things,” he said Monday when asked about protesting by kneeling during the national anthem. “As I said before, I think it’s great. I’m one of the athletes who stood on stage at the ESPYs and asked athletes to use their voice, a call to action for athletes to stand up. I think it’s great when you see an athlete use his voice for something he believes in.
“The one thing I’m thankful for is that I’ve been educated. I think Kaepernick educated a lot of us on things we didn’t know, things we weren’t aware of. I think, for me, things in this city that I’ve seen, we have a different kind of battle here in Chicago, a different focus. That’s what my focus is on. My focus is on this city and what am I capable of doing to help our youth in this city in a bigger way. ... But what [ Kaepernick] is doing is great because it’s what he wants to do, it’s what he believes in, and he’s using his voice for that cause.”
Having grown up in Chicago, Wade knows the violence here. But it especially hit home for him when his cousin, Nykea Aldridge, was shot and killed in August.
He said he plans on initiating some sort of anti- violence campaign in Chicago now that he’s in a Bulls uniform, but he doesn’t have the details finalized.
“That’s something that me and my team and family are discussing,” he said. “As I always say with my foundation, I’m obviously one individual. But there’s always great strength in numbers. We’ll sit down and talk about what’s the next step, what’s the best step and how that looks here in Chicago.
“I live by the code ‘ To who much is given, much is required.’ I’ve been given a lot. It’s required for me to do something to help the next generation.”
Never quite rid of Rose
Months after guard Derrick Rose’s trade to the New York Knicks, the Bulls still can’t escape questions about him. John Paxson, vice president of basketball operations, was asked Monday at media day if Rose— who’d been in the news because of his talk of free agency, as well as off- the- court legal problems— had become a distraction.
“No, no,” Paxson said. “Last year was not because of one person, issue. We just didn’t have a collective fight to us. It’s one of the reasons we made changes this offseason.”
General manager Gar Forman stressed that Rose was traded for basketball reasons only.