Dwyane Wade goes on on ‘Ellen’ to surprise Waffle House hero
James Shaw Jr., the Waffle House hero who stopped a gunman in Tennessee last month, appeared Wednesday on “Ellen” where he was surprised with a visit from his favorite NBA player: the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade.
Shaw was telling Ellen DeGeneres about his favorite things — his 4-year-old daughter Brooklyn and his love of basketball — when DeGeneres asked him about his favorite player. He said Wade.
“I like the way he carries himself off the court,” Shaw said on the show. Enter Wade. “How about that. Surprise,” DeGeneres told Shaw as Wade greeted and hugged Shaw, who
was grinning ear to ear.
“So he just dropped everything. We told him that you loved him and that he was your favorite so he just flew out here for you,” DeGeneres said.
“I’m glad I could be here,” said Wade. “I look at you, I know you don’t want to be called a hero, but I look at you as an American hero ...
“I would say obviously how brave you are, but for me, when I sit down with my kids and I sit down and talk to them about role models who I want them to look up to, I tell them to go look up James Shaw.”
Wade also brought a gift, a check for $20,000.
Shaw also received another shout out from South Florida. Over the weekend, Parkland student Emma Gonzalez Tweeted that Shaw was her hero.
“My hero James Shaw Jr,” the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student shared on Twitter with a photo of Shaw holding his daughter.
Shaw, 29, became known for prying the weapon from the gunman during a fatal shooting at a Waffle House near Nashville on April 22.
Four people were killed in the shooting.