Top 5 tearjerker moments from Budweiser’s Dwyane Wade tribute video
I'm not crying, you're crying!
Writer Dustin Seibert knows that the Budweiser tribute video for Dwyane Wade is essentially a beer ad, but gosh darn it, it's a great one. #realtears
There were only two reactions on my social media feeds to the Dwyane Wade’s Budweiser ad on Tuesday: “Oh my god, why did this make me cry?” and, “Why is everyone talking about crying over D. Wade – oh shit, this made me cry too!”
The 4-minute video, “This Bud’s For 3,” coincides with Wade’s retirement from the NBA – he played his last home game with the Miami Heat Tuesday – and his retirement-tour routine of trading jerseys with other NBA players. Wade is capping his 16-year NBA career as one of the sport’s most revered players and without the controversy that dogged the retirement of other legends, (*cough* Kobe *cough*) He even earned a few words from The People’s President.
READ MORE: Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade support 11-year-old son, Zion at Miami Beach Pride festival
“Saying goodbye to a career that you love is never easy”: Former Pres. Barack Obama pays tribute to Dwyane Wade ahead of NBA star’s retirement. https://t.co/rHGPoUF4Rr pic.twitter.com/pzENkigpop
— ABC News (@ABC) April 10, 2019
Companies leveraging Wade’s retirement to push their brand is not shocking, but this damn beer ad caught everyone and their feelings off guard. Here are the five most “I’m not crying, you’re crying!” moments from the ad:
Joaquin Oliver’s Sister
The video took its first somber turn just over a minute in when Andrea Ghersi, sister of Wade mega fan Joaquin Oliver, one of the victims of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., announced who she was, causing Wade to drop both his smile and his head. Following the shooting, Wade dedicated his 2017-2018 season to Joaquin and even rocked his name on his shoes during games. Joaquin was buried in Wade’s jersey; Ghersi gifted Wade an inscribed jersey that Joaquin wore before he was killed.
The Woman Wade Looked Out For
Merrilyn Beard-Breland thanked Wade for helping her out with money and treating her and her family on a shopping spree through Target when a fire burned down her house 10 days before Christmas. Beard-Breland is a seamstress who worked out of the house that burned down. She gifted Wade a shirt that she made and now all of us are more thankful for the little things that we take for granted.
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The Young Brother Who Pushed Through
Wade has publicly spoken of his rough upbringing in Chicago and how his father put him on a straight path. He served as a similar influence for Danny Arzu, whose voice cracks when he tells Wade that he hails from a place “where many don’t make it.” Wade inspired Arzu when he visited Arzu’s youth basketball camp years ago. Arzu now pays it forward as a volunteer in Miami’s Overtown Youth Center; he gifted Wade with the blazer he wore during his first job interview. Watching it, it’s easy to imagine that Wade inspired countless Danny Arzus throughout his career.
First in Her Family
Wade linked up with the Boys and Girls Club to create the Wade’s World Foundation, which, in part, provides scholarship money to members of at-risk communities. Tamara Johnson received a full-tuition scholarship in 2010 to attend Wade’s alma-mater, Marquette University in Milwaukee. Johnson went on to graduate from the university’s law school and now works as a lawyer in New Mexico. She was the first in her family to attend college; she gifted Wade her cap and gown.
Wade’s Mama, Man
This was it for me. No Black man without a mama whom he loves dearly should have been completely dry-eyed for this moment. Jolinda Wade says in her wise-old-mama voice, “You were the joy of my life, but I was dropping the ball,” touching on how her descent into drug use, drug selling and imprisonment took her away from her son as a youth. Wade bought Jolinda New Creation Church, through which she pastors on Chicago’s south side. She passed her son a purple robe similar to one that he bought her to start preaching. It’s the video’s most powerful moment because we all want to do what Wade could: improve our parents’ circumstances in any way we can.
Dustin J. Seibert is a native Detroiter living in Chicago. Miraculously, people have paid him to be aggressively light-skinned via a computer keyboard for nearly two decades. He loves his own mama slightly more than he loves music and exercises every day only so his French fry intake doesn’t catch up to him. Find him at his own site, wafflecolored.com.
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