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SALT LAKE CITY — Since becoming a part owner of the Utah Jazz in April, Dwyane Wade has been a very involved member of the organization.
He's given tips to Donovan Mitchell, spent time in Las Vegas at training camp, and is a normal presence courtside at games.
Now, he'll have even more reasons to stick around Salt Lake City.
On Tuesday, The Athletic reported that Zaire Wade, the son of the Miami Heat legend, will be signing a G-League contract and is expected to join the Salt Lake City Stars.
According to 247Sports, the younger Wade was the 296th ranked player in the 2021 recruiting class with offers from South Carolina, Rhode Island, DePaul and Toledo. Instead of going the college route, however, he has elected to go straight to the G-League and start his professional career.
Zaire Wade came onto the recruiting scene while playing at Sierra Canyon (Calif.), one of the most-high profile prep teams in the country. That team included LeBron James' oldest son, Bronny, as well as a number of other high-profile recruits.
After tearing a ligament in his right ankle that forced him to the sidelines for a significant portion of his senior season in 2019-20, Wade reclassified to the 2021 class and transferred to Brewster Academy in New Hampshire — the same school Mitchell starred at — for a post-grad season.
The three-star combo guard had options to play in college, and options that were strikingly similar to what his father had coming out of high school. Dwyane Wade had just three major college offers after his prep career in Illinois.
"He just tells me that all the five-stars and having a lot of offers, that doesn't matter," Zaire Wade told 247Sports in 2020. "There's a lot of guys in the NBA who have had that same story. There's not a lot of LeBron's coming out of high school that are superstars right away. It takes time. It's a marathon not a sprint."
His marathon looks to be taking him to Salt Lake City and the Utah Jazz organization.
