Jazz Part Owner Dwyane Wade Opens Up About Cancer, Kidney Surgery

SALT LAKE CITY – To the shock of many, Basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade opened up about having cancer and undergoing kidney surgery in late 2023.

On The Why with Dwyane Wade podcast, he spoke on the entire process from getting his diagnosis to surgery and the effect it had on him both mentally and physically.

Dwyane Wade On The Importance Of Taking A Timeout

The world didn’t know about Wade having cancer or his surgery until this week.

In a new podcast series with co-host Bob Metelus, Wade said that he felt it was finally time to open up.

“I’m going to wait until the right moment to talk about certain things,” Wade said. “This is the right moment. For me, the journey to get here was in this last calendar year.”

After retiring from professional basketball in 2019, Wade stopped getting regular health check-ups. It took a health scare from his father for Wade to go to the doctor for the first time in years in 2023.

He said that he had nothing more than slight concerns. But after the test results from the physicals came back, he received unexpected news.

“I went into the doctor to look for something else,” Wade said. “I did the full-body scan and they were able to see something on my right kidney. (It) was a tumor. I went in for a physical and now the (doctor is telling me), ‘you need to have kidney surgery.'”

As an athlete who was in peak physical form for the majority of his life, he was in uncharted waters.

With his family and a large support group by his side, he opted to go through with the procedure.

“I had a personal decision to make,” Wade said. “It was, ‘If this is cancerous, it’s something that needs to be removed so it doesn’t spread.’ I made the decision to have surgery. I had it on December 18, 2023. Thank god that I did do surgery because the tumor was cancerous. I have one kidney and I have another that’s 60 percent. They took 40 percent of my kidney.”

DWade says he had nearly half of one of his kidneys removed in 2023 to get rid of a cancerous mass 🙏

(via The Why with Dwyane Wade, h/t @TMZ)pic.twitter.com/gXkzFNw27Z

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) January 30, 2025

The entire process left an impact on Wade — not just physically, but also mentally.

As strong individuals tend to do, he was able to grow from it. As Wade put it, he turned weakness into strength. More specifically, he found strength within the weakness. And he couldn’t have done that without his family.

“I think that was the first time my family saw me weak,” Wade said. “That moment was probably the weakest point I’ve ever felt in my life. One thing you never want to do as a man, is you never want your family to see you weak. You don’t want to be perceived as weak and you don’t want to be seen in your weak moments. In that process of weakness, I found strength in my family.”

Wade used his path to recovery as a time to take better care of himself.

He learned a lesson during this period of his life. Having fun and giving to others may make you feel whole. But, nothing is more important than taking care of and improving upon yourself.

Dwyane Wade, Part Owner Of The Utah Jazz

In 2023, the Jazz announced that Wade was joining the organization’s ownership group.

Before joining the Jazz, Wade played in the NBA for 16 seasons, 14 as a member of the Heat. Wade retired from playing in 2019. The Heat retired his jersey in 2020.

The Chicago native was a 13-time NBA All-Star and a three-time NBA champion.

Chandler Holt is a co-host of the Jazz Notes podcast, a Locals In The NFL Insider, and Digital Sports Producer for sports.ksl.com. Follow Chandler on X for Utah Jazz and Locals In The NFL updates.

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