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Report: Dwyane Wade's Son Zaire Agrees to Contract with BAL's Cape Town Tigers

Timothy Rapp

Dwyane Wade's son Zaire is reportedly signing with the Cape Town Tigers of the Basketball Africa League, according to ESPN's Marc J. Spears.

The 20-year-old appeared in 13 games for the Utah Jazz's G League Salt Lake City Stars last season, putting up 4.6 points and 1.9 assists per game.

The BAL includes 12 clubs from 12 African nations playing a total of 38 games in three locations—Dakar, Senegal; Cairo, Egypt; and Kigali, Rwanda—with Cape Town featuring in the Nile Conference between April 26th and May 6th.

As for Zaire, living up to the Hall of Fame career of his famous father is no easy task. Last February, he spoke about his dad's goals for him while he was playing in the G League.

"He keeps it setting different goals for me to try to reach as far as being successful," he told Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune. "And I keep telling my dad, 'Slow down, man, I'm trying to catch up with you, and you're making it hard for me!'"

Zaire remains an unseasoned player, but he's shown flashes of upside.

"Zaire is very quick. He's probably the quickest guy on our team with the ball. He's one of the better passers when he's in his mode, in his groove," Stars coach Nathan Peavy told Larsen last February. "He can be very pesky defensively when he wants to be. Obviously, he needs to get more experience. He needs to mature in his body. But he has a chance to really grow."

If he does make it to the NBA someday, he will have done so in a far different way than his father, who won a national championship with Marquette and spent two seasons in college before being drafted by the Miami Heat.

Zaire Wade—who was a 3-star prospect coming out of Sierra Canyon High School, where he saw inconsistent playing time—chose to bypass college and jump straight to the G League. Now, he's off to the BAL.

It hasn't been the most traditional path, though plenty of players have turned stints overseas into NBA careers. And bypassing college has become a more common decision for young prospects. If Zaire does make it to the NBA, he'll have a good story to tell.

   

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