Wade Draws A Spike Of Interest

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There was no Mars Blackmon appearance, there were no feats of athleticism displayed, no claims of ``It's got to be the shoes.''

Dwyane Wade's experience with renowned director Spike Lee was nothing like the classic Michael Jordan commercials that launched in the late 1980s. For Wade and Lee, the commercial that was shot inside Miami LaSalle High School's basketball gym Monday was less about the shoes and more about the man in them.

The commercial is for Wade's newest Converse sneaker, called WADE 1.3, and is scheduled to begin airing on Oct. 26. The ad is shot documentary style, with Wade sharing some of his inner thoughts.

It's quite the departure from last season's campaign, which showed Wade tumbling to the floor during games and featuring the proverb ``Fall Seven Times, Stand Up Eight.''

''Last year everybody saw something I was about, the falling and the basketball action,'' Wade said after the long day of shooting. 'I'm kind of sick of basketball commercials. Even Spike said, `You don't want to see the typical dunk. You don't want to see the typical crossover anymore.' What the fans want now, they want to get to know who you are. And without me getting on a TV show and talking about my whole life, I thought we would give them a snippet about the way I think when it's time for games, or what's important to me. That's something that I really stressed, and I wanted this to be a real piece.

''You're going to see my ads and my billboards, I'm just going to be like this,'' Wade added, tugging on his black tank top. ``You're going to see something real, just D-Wade.''

Wade sounded satisfied with the commercial after it was shot, but he knew he would be happy with the outcome when he first heard who would be directing it. Once Converse had the idea for the ad campaign, Lee sought out the company for a chance to work with Wade.

''I always marvel at the great, great athletes, especially the young cats coming up,'' Lee said in an interview through a Converse spokeswoman. ``Dwyane is definitely one of them, and he's a winner.''

Said Wade, who signed a six-year extension with Converse earlier this year: ``When I got the call and heard Spike was going to do it, I stopped worrying about the commercial. I knew it was going to be good. I knew all I had to do was show up.

``He didn't have to do this. Somebody else could've done it, but with him being one of the best in the business, it meant that he saw something in my potential as a basketball player and as a person.''</div>

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