Gabrielle Union: 'It hurts me to the core' when Wade doesn't get back on D

Gabrielle Union wants people to know that athletes' wives have far more to say than stereotypes about them would suggest. Her husband, Dwyane Wade, can probably attest to that.

While Union offers the requisite encouragement and support for Wade's on-court exploits, she also comes down on him as hard as anyone when he doesn't give maximum effort, especially when he bickers with officials instead of running back on defense.

"There's a right way of playing the game and a wrong way," Union told ESPN's Cari Champion. "I get incensed when he does not get back on defense and he's arguing a call. It hurts me to the core. It does something to me when I see him not get back on defense. And then we go to AAU with our boys, and guess who's not back on defense, arguing the call."

Wade, though, says he doesn't take Union's critiques of his game to heart.

"Somewhere along the way, my wife felt like, I guess she thought she was good at basketball," he quipped. "So she feels she can give me advice. I don't really do well with her giving me advice. ...

"For me it's more so about the support. It's also about telling me when I need to pick it up. But the rest of it's just a bunch of gibberish in between. Like telling me how to shoot free throws and telling me to get back. I don't listen to that."

When asked whether those comments would get him into trouble, Wade laughed it off.

"It's all good," he said, "we have this kind of relationship."

It's apparent that Union's criticism comes from a good place, and she has tremendous belief in Wade's abilities, even as the 34-year-old enters the twilight of his storied career.

"My husband is damn effective at what he does," she said. "He is a fierce competitor. And the way he's shifted his game and shifted his approach to the game, how he prepares for the game, he can do what he did last season for the next few years, easily."