Being the son of a professional athlete often comes with a lot of unfair expectations. Given good genes (at least from the paternal side) and assumedly, a father willing to instruct, such kids are often assumed to be headed for lucrative careers within their father’s game of choice, but unfortunately, the future is more often littered with disappointment or even different sports. That’s why each child needs to be judged on his or her own talent rather than the impact his or her father may have made. Luckily for Zaire Wade, however, he can be judged on either scale, and he’ll come out smelling like a rose.
The son of NBA champion Dwyane Wade has been called one of the best young players in the country by several leading scouting services, and this highlight video, put together by City League Hoops, certainly seems to back up that assessment. Blessed with left-handedness, good rotation on his jump shot and his dad’s quickness (at least in his younger days), Zaire is seen in the above footage absolutely beasting on other fifth graders at the John Lucas Future of the Game Camp in Las Vegas, which is actually really impressive. That competition is a whole lot tougher than what’s found in your average recreation league game or on the playgrounds at recess.
Forecasting a player’s future at this point in time is profoundly unfair to him. Between body changes, levels of work ethic and pace of play adjustments, it’s extremely difficult to figure out how kids will progress at the next level. Hell, general managers are paid millions of dollars, and they often can’t figure out who the future NBA stars will be when it comes draft time. Consequently, there’s no way they can make educated guesses at players much younger. That being said, it is fair to say, at this point in time, little Wade is dominant, and that should be more than enough to earn him some street cred amongst his friends.
I have no idea if famous people watch their own highlight videos, but I feel reasonably confident in saying Zaire is probably going to get a kick out of this one. I sure as hell would have if it was footage of me when I was in elementary school.
As a matter of comparison, here’s a look at a highlight video of Zaire’s daddy…
