A Grandma’s Wish Granted

  A dream that was prayed for since the day Dwyane Wade was drafted to the Miami Heat in 2003 was finally fulfilled 11 years later for a local grandmother’s 90th birthday. It all started with an innocent video. Brian Lacsina created a YouTube video featuring his grandmother Iluminada “Nelly” Magtoto playing basketball and challenging her favorite basketball player, Dwyane Wade, to a game of one on one.

  “My cousin Ashley came up with the idea. She wanted to do a video for Apu [grandmother in Nelly’s language] for her 90th birthday. So we thought ‘Hey, why not create a video of her making a basket, asking Dwyane Wade to a challenge?’” Brian recalled. “We said ‘Hey let’s see if we can do a video and get Dwyane Wade to watch it.’”

  They did this just 11 days before the grandmother’s birthday last Sunday. The day after the video was posted, he already had a response from the NBA superstar.

  “We made the video one afternoon, we put the video together that same afternoon, and right after I posted it that night, I tweeted it right away to Dwyane Wade and shared to all of my family. Then all of a sudden I wake up the next day at 7 in the morning right before I went to school, and the first thing on my phone said ‘Dwyane Wade mentioned you’. So I looked and he quoted my tweet and he said ‘Let’s do it grandma’. And I was amazed.” Brian said.

 Brian wanted to make this once-in-a-lifetime experience a surprise for his beloved grandmother that helped raise him and his cousin Ashley. She arrived to the arena thinking they were going to only get tickets to the game.

  A long wait in the Hublot lobby of the American Airlines Arena left Nelly slightly confused but happy she was going to see her favorite player in a game live.

  Nelly was finally directed by Arena staff to go upstairs to the Heat’s practice court and before you could blink, the tears rushed to her eyes. The door opened to the court and the player that had been on her wall for so many years was no longer paper, he was skin and muscle putting in work on the court after practice.

  “I’ve been dreaming for so many years to finally hold Dwyane Wade and I can finally do it.” Nelly said as she embraced Dwyane Wade with a smile from ear to ear.

  The NBA franchise player of 11 years was also touched by this experience.

  “It gives me life, it gives me a purpose.” Dwyane Wade said right before playing a casual game of one on one with Nelly. Nelly was able to make a basket and even set up a beautiful alley-oop pass that Wade completed for a lay-up. He joked around after the basket by saying “You throw better lines than Mario Chalmers.”

  Summarizing her feelings about the experience, Nelly said “Since he joined the Heat, I’ve never missed a game of Dwyane’s. I have a picture of him in my room. But every day I keep praying that one day in my life, I can hold him and I can touch him. And this was it. Now, God gave me the strength to live my dream.”

  After the emotional game, they were given the tickets that Grandma Nelly had originally thought they were going to get but with a slight upgrade. Nelly and two of her grandchildren Brian and Ashley were able to sit in the front row of Tuesday’s preseason match against the Houston Rockets.

Dwyane Wade played arguably his best performance of the preseason as he finished with an impressive line of 26 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists, and a block.

  It was a wonderful ending to a beautiful day for Grandma Nelly, her grandchildren, and Dwyane Wade.