Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat Statue Is Unveiled And Draws Mixed Reactions
Dwyane Wade was finally immortalized by the Miami Heat with a statue, but some fans are still determining if it looks like him. On Sunday (Oct. 27), the Heat held a ceremony outside of Kaseya Center with a slew of Wade’s former teammates and coaches in attendance, including Erik Spoelstra, Udonis Haslem, Bam Adebayo, and more.
D-Wade’s family was also at the event, with multiple shots of his son, daughter, and wife, Gabrielle Union, celebrating Wade’s accomplishment of becoming the first Miami Heat player to be granted a statue outside the team’s arena. And, of course, the commemoration was marked with celebratory speeches.
“This city’s better since you came here,” Udonis said at the podium, showing love to Wade. “These people are better—a true leader brings people together. You have brought this city together beyond measure that you will never understand, my brother.”
Then, the time came for the statue’s unveiling. A Black enclosed box opened up, with two of it’s walls dramatically sliding apart as a countdown reached zero. Smoke seeped out from the obsidian-colored enclosure as the statue, created by designed by Timeless Creations’ Oscar León and Omri Amrany, took center stage.
“This is crazy—Who’s that guy?” Wade joked, following the statue’s reveal, per ESPN. “I wanted to feel this. Life goes by so fast, and it’s very rare that we get to feel things because we’re always off to the next thing… I wanted to feel this, man. I wanted to look at it.”
However, the question of “Who’s that guy?” took on a life of it’s own as netizens couldn’t help but crack jokes regarding the statue. While the immortal artwork perfectly captured the NBA Champion’s iconic “This is my house” pose from 2009, they didn’t think the work looked like Wade. At all.
Some folks joked that the statue looked like a plethora of other famous Black people like Laurence Fishburne, Antoine Walker, and even some white people like Kelsey Grammer.
“The Dwyane Wade statue looks like he’s riding an invisible motorcycle,” one account typed. “Dwayne Wade statue looks like he had too much ‘tossed salad and scrambled eggs,'” another chimed in. “Our society is a** at sculpting. Why is the NBA, in particular, so bad at hiring sculptors? Where is Michelangelo when you need him? This sh*t looks like the monster Mortal Kombat version of Dwayne Wade,” someone quipped on X/Twitter. “Did the artist ever actually look at a picture of Dwayne Wade BEFORE making the statue???”
Take a look through more funny jokes and moments from the commemoration above.
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