Tuesday, July 28, 2009
MIAMI (AP) — Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade is embroiled in a multimillion-dollar legal mess with former business partners that could prove costly for the NBA star.
A deal to open a restaurant chain — D. Wade’s Place — which Wade and a friend, Marcus Andrews, hoped would go nationwide barely got off the ground. And now those former business associates claim Wade walked away from a binding contract.
“He’s only hurting himself. It’s become something it shouldn’t have,” said Richard von Houtman, one of Wade’s ex-partners in the failed restaurant-and-memorabilia chain venture that once envisioned 40 locations. “It would have been phenomenal.”
Wade, the NBA’s leading scorer last season, is acutely aware of the impact his legal struggles could have on his future endorsement earnings.
“In my profession, your name and likeness is all people know about you. They don’t know just the person,” Wade said in a court deposition obtained by The Associated Press. “So, with that being said, with my name and likeness being dragged through everything ... there’s already a hit on my brand and a hit to my name. That’s not good.”
Wade has also filed a $100 million libel lawsuit against von Houtman over e-mails his former partner sent to Heat president Pat Riley. Wade’s brand, though, still seems to be strong: Earlier this month, he changed shoe companies, leaving Converse for Nike’s Jumpman, the line made popular by Michael Jordan.
All this comes as the 27-year-old Wade is going through a messy divorce from his wife, Siohvaughn, and an arbitration proceeding over claims that he improperly walked away from a Miami charter school for at-risk kids that was supposed to bear his name.