Thursday, May 25, 2006

What excellent taste!

From The Sun-Sentinel:

Heat's Wade shows he is also adept at scoring with consumers

In his third season as the Heat's superstar guard, Dwyane Wade picked up some unexpected fans when he made Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice his recommended book as part of Penguin Classics' campaign to promote literacy in partnership with the NBA.

Wade, 24, who credited a schoolteacher with turning him onto the book he has read more than once, said its theme of class struggle spoke to him as a kid growing up in Chicago.

Some Austen fans who had never heard of Wade pronounced him their favorite basketball player. Joan Klingel Ray, president of the Jane Austen Society of North America, is planning to make him an honorary member of the 3,000-member society.

It's another example of how Wade's exposure has multiplied dramatically -- his jersey is now the NBA's No. 1 seller -- and has expanded beyond sports' boundaries in the year since the Heat fell just shy of the 2005 NBA Finals.

"In choosing Jane Austen, he shows he's a very smart man," Ray said of Wade.
I couldn't agree more!

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