Dwyane Wade 'Appreciated' Mike Tyson Defending His Daughter Against Rapper's Transphobic Comments

Dwyane Wade has opened up about how much it meant to him that Mike Tyson defended Wade's 13-year-old daughter, Zaya, against rapper Boosie Badazz's transphobic comments.

The former NBA player expressed his appreciation for Tyson's kind gesture toward his daughter, who came out as transgender in 2019, in an interview with Central Ave Friday.

"I actually talked to Mike about that early in the pandemic," Wade said. "We had a conversation. I appreciated from a standpoint of, you know, Mike is someone who has never tried to be perfect. He is someone who has learned from this journey of life."

"He’s so smart. He is so educated and knowledgeable about life. For him to be able to drop that nugget on the world, to me, it was great to hear him say that," he added.

In February, Boosie made transphobic remarks about Zaya on Instagram.

"Don’t cut his d--k off, bruh. Like, bruh, for real, if he gonna be gay, let him be gay. But don’t cut his d--k off, bruh. Don’t dress him as a woman, dawg. He’s 12 years old. He’s not up there yet. He hasn’t made his final decisions yet. Don’t cut his f-----g d--k off, Dwyane Wade," Boosie wrote in a now-deleted post on Instagram, Billboard reported.

In October, Tyson called out Boosie for his comments toward Zaya when the latter appeared in an episode of his "Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson" podcast.

"What happened to you that you think that you’re somebody that can comment on somebody’s life?" the legendary boxer told the rapper.

Boosie defended himself saying he only commented on Wade's situation because it involved a child.

Meanwhile, Wade said in his recent interview that he understood that everyone has "their own journey towards accepting things."

"I've never came out and said anything to anybody that feels a certain way about me or someone else in my family and my loved ones," he said. "They don’t know us. They don’t know our heart. They definitely don’t know Zaya. So, all I do is what my mama say, 'Just pray for them.’"

Wade and his wife Gabrielle Union, who is Zaya's stepmom, have long supported their child's journey. The basketball star earlier revealed on "Good Morning America" that his daughter has known since she was 3 years old that she was transgender.

"My daughter was my first interaction when it comes with having to deal with this conversation. Hopefully I'm dealing with it the right way," he said in February. "Some people think I'm not but, inside our home, we see the smile on our daughter's face. We see the confidence that she's able to walk around and be herself and that's when you know you're doing it right."