Dwyane Wade Reflects on What Basketball Gave Him Ahead of Doc Release: ‘It Restored My Family’

It’s a month of reflection for Dwyane Wade as he prepares for the release of a raw and comprehensive new documentary about his life — before and after he became one of the NBA’s most dominant players.

The former Miami Heat superstar, 38, is the focus of D. Wade: Life Unexpected from ESPN Films and Imagine Documentaries and directed by Bob Metelus.

Life Unexpected includes years of footage of private and public moments from Wade’s journey, and doesn’t shy away from the more trying times — a rough childhood in Chicago, a painful custody battle, and more.

“It was very difficult,” he tells PEOPLE of recounting those memories for the film, “and I think a lot of it is, once you’ve dealt with something — whether it was 10 years ago or six years ago — and then you have to bring it back, it becomes current again.”

The documentary looks beyond just Wade’s time on the court, where the athlete says the sport’s longtime impact on his life is most felt.

Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade

“The biggest thing that basketball has given me? It restored my family,” he says. “My family will not leave this earth without having made some kind of imprint.”

He continues, “Basketball has given me sort of like, ‘There go the Wades right there. We see them.’ So, I’m proud of that. I’m proud of being the one in my family that could put us on the sheet somewhere where people will remember, hopefully, our impact as a family.”

Emma McIntyre/Getty
Emma McIntyre/Getty

Last April, Wade retired after 16 years in the NBA. Getting to a point where he was ready to walk away, he says, was surprisingly easy toward the end.

“I felt that I just didn’t have the same love and the same passion for the process and for the journey,” he says, before noting, “It wasn’t the game. I love basketball.”

He continues, “I love basketball. But the journey and the process just became … It was too much. I just don’t want to do it anymore and I didn’t want to do it the same.”

Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade

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“Summertime, I didn’t want to work hard anymore. It was all these things that led me to be like, ‘Okay, before you embarrass yourself and your family out here, you need to walk away.’ “

In his final game, Wade put up a triple-double, logging 25 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

He admits that it was “important for me to go out with a little pride and dignity.”

“And I think I did that,” Wade tells PEOPLE. “I think I went out with people saying, ‘Oh, man. You’ve still got some more left.’ “

That first morning waking up without practice or training to go to was “different,” he says. “But I was okay. I wasn’t missing anything. It was just I had to get used to the new normal.”

And Wade is still busy, with numerous projects and charitable efforts always in the works. He’s also a father to daughter Kaavia, 15 months, with wife Gabrielle Union, as well as daughter Zaya, 12 — who recently came out as transgender — and sons Xavier, 6, and Zaire, 18. Wade is also the guardian of nephew Dahveon Morris, 18.

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This weekend, when fans tune in to watch Life Unexpected, Wade hopes that “everyone can look at some part of my journey and see themselves.”

“It’s not just a documentary about a basketball superstar, because everybody can identify with that,” he says. “But you can identify with parenthood, you can identify relationships, good and bad, you can identify a lot of things that are in my documentary.”

D. Wade: Life Unexpected premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on ESPN.