I never claim to really know Dwyane Wade but I did meet the man before he was D. Wade. I sat behind him in Western Civ at Marquette our freshman year. There was always this feel around him that he was destined for greatness. Maybe because in a humble way he always said he was going to be a major star in the NBA some day. He never said it in a cocky, arrogant way. He always said it in a very confident, "this is what I am destined to do" type of way.

He made good on those words with hard work and god given talent. With fame comes a price, like people trying to knock you down from your pedestal. It seems that has been the case with Wade lately. First, it was the reports that his soon to be ex-wife, Siovaughn accused Wade of giving her a sexually transmitted disease with all his infidelity. Siovaughn later recanted that allegation. Now, Mr. Wade is wrapped up in another legal battle. Again, he is trying to protect his reputation.

According to the Associated Press, Wade is suing an ex-business partner for libel. Wade thinks the alleged damage to his reputation is about a 100 million dollars and that is what he wants from the former business partner.

According to the report, this business partner emailed Heat president Pat Riley saying, "Behind closed doors, Mr. Wade is a bully and a coward."

It further adds that Wade and fellow Heat players "were caught in a hotel room smoking marijuana. From Wade to (name deleted) and the rest of the NBA players. Is it just about selling tickets?” the lawsuit quotes the e-mail as saying. It later adds, “The Miami Heat ‘Drugs, Sex & Basketball’.”

Those statements were excerpts from two emails that this former business partner sent to Riley. Thankfully, Riley did not put any stock into the email. It just seems like Mr. Wade keeps paying a steep price of fame. It is sad that he has to pay this steep of a price considering all the hard work he has put into becoming one of basketball's best. Just seems like there are some people that can not accept a squeaky clean image. People have to find the dirt and they will go to great lengths to find it. Not saying Wade is an angel. Even in his Marquette days, there was always rumors that Wade was not as squeaky clean as he projected. A bully, a drug user and a coward was never in those rumors. 

Quite frankly, it is good that Riley just ignored the email. There is one thing that I have pretty good idea about Wade on and that is Wade is not a bully, a drug user and a coward behind closed doors. He has always been gracious with his time and an honest guy. He still has not forgotten about where he came from. I have plenty of alumni friends that knew Wade better than I did and they still say the rare chance they have had an encounter with D Wade, he still remembers their name.

There are still going to be people that will try to knock him down whether it is jealousy or revenge. Some may think Wade is going overboard here but he must have his reasons and maybe the email had even more damaging statements. Would anybody want to be accused of being a drug user to their boss? As the old saying goes, the more money you come upon, the more problems you see. Okay, well it is not such an old saying and it came from a P. Diddy and Biggie Smalls collaboration. It seems to suit the description of Dwyane Wade's life lately pretty well.