Miami Heat Unveils Dwyane Wade Statue, But Fans Think It Looks Like Someone Else

The Miami Heat honored Dwyane Wade by unveiling a statue of the basketball legend outside the Kaseya Center in Miami, sealing his legacy with the team and making him the first Heat player with a statue outside the arena. The statue was revealed at a ceremony Sunday, about eight months after team president Pat Riley announced plans to solidify Wade's legacy with the Heat, according to the NBA.

"This is crazy," Wade said after the statue was unveiled. "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."

In comments after the unveiling, Wade said he never expected this moment. "I didn’t play for this," he said at the ceremony. "I didn’t pick up the basketball for this. I picked up the basketball to change my family’s life." He also said he is "one of the luckiest men in the world" because "people believe in me."

The statue, designed by Timeless Creations’ Omri Amrany and Oscar León, sits outside the front doors of the Kaseya Center.

Wade was clearly stunned by the statue, remarking, “That’s crazy. I can’t believe that. Who’s that guy?” just moments after he first laid eyes on it. After he took his place at the podium in front of the statue, he turned multiple times to admire the massive version of himself with a smile on his face.

But Wade’s fans on the internet weren’t as enthusiastic, saying the statue looks little like him.

Making light of Wade’s “who’s that guy?” comment, a user on X said, “We’re all wondering the same thing.”

The statue appears to show Wade mid-celebration, with his mouth wide open, his eyes squinted shut and his arms raised while he is pointing down.

Another user quipped that the statue was actually of “Wayne Dade,” and a third compared it to actor Laurence Fishburne.

“The Miami Heat should’ve had a contest where they showed this picture to 1,000 fans — and anyone who guesses it’s Dwyane Wade gets to keep the statue,” Jeff Darlington, a reporter for ESPN, joked on X.

Asked at a news conference Sunday about the moment he saw the statue, Wade said he thought, “That’s beautiful.” “I think it’s one of the best statues that’s been created because of what it represents for us and for me,” he said.

Wade played 13 seasons with the Heat, from 2003 to 2016, before he left for one season with the Chicago Bulls followed by one season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, before he returned to Miami for his final season in the NBA. Alongside the statue is a wall listing Wade's numerous career accomplishments, including being the Heat's all-time leading scorer.

Wade is one of two players to have been on all three Miami Heat teams that won NBA championships, according to the NBA. The other is Udonis Haslem. His own team calls him "the greatest player in Miami Heat history," and he is one of six former Heat players whose numbers the team has retired.

Wade, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, was one of the Heat's famed Big Three, along with Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, from 2010 to 2014. During their time playing together, the Heat won two NBA championships and four Eastern Conference championships.

Wade was also part of the gold medal-winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and earned a bronze medal at the Athens Games in 2004.

The celebration will continue Monday when Miami faces the Detroit Pistons in what the team is calling "a special Wade-themed game night" that will feature video tributes and a halftime address from Wade. Monday's game also marks the 21st anniversary of Wade's first game with the team, according to the NBA.

At Sunday's unveiling, Wade was grateful, thanking fans for following his career and adding after the statue reveal, "I believe I gave you guys something set in stone to hold on to." "This is my house," he concluded. "I'm out."

Wade's Legacy in Miami

Wade was surely awed by the spectacle of having a sculpture of him created that generations of fans can now look at outside the Heat's home arena and recall one of the team's greatest players.

Wade spent 15 seasons in Miami and led his team to three NBA championships (2006, 2012 and 2013).

The 42-year-old watched as the crowd counted down and the panels slid away from his statue that sits outside the arena. "This is nothing I ever thought I'd experience," Wade told the crowd during the ceremony. "I didn't play for this. I didn't pick up the basketball for this. I picked up a basketball to change my family's life."

The 13-time NBA All-Star started 909 of the 1,054 games he played and scored 23,165 points while averaging .480 from the field during his decorated career.

The Statue's Uncanny Resemblance... Or Lack Thereof

Yet as impressive as the sculpture and the Heat's presentation may have been, once the statue was unveiled, many noted that the bronze memorial didn't really resemble the NBA star.

The reaction to the statue and its lack of similarity to the real-life figure being honored resembled the backlash over the bronze bust of international soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo that was unveiled at the airport in his native Madeira in Portugal. The outrage over a goofy, cartoonish rendition of the strikingly handsome Ronaldo was so loud and global that a new sculpture was commissioned, one that nearly all agreed resembled its actual subject much more closely.

A State Farm commercial featuring former NFL quarterback and current Prime Video studio analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick made fun of a ridiculous bust being made of him. Everyone involved, including "Jake from State Farm" and Fitzpatrick's colleague Charissa Thompson insisted the sculpture's resemblance was spot-on. Yet Fitzpatrick was in disbelief and viewers of the ad surely agreed at how absurd the bust looked.

Here we are with real life once again drawing a parallel with a comedic commercial spoofing exactly these types of moments.

Perhaps in the days to come, someone will ask Fitzpatrick — himself a former Miami professional athlete, playing for the Dolphins from 2019-20 — what he thinks of the Wade statue. At the very least, he could repeat the "What did I do to deserve this?" line from the commercial and apply it to the basketball Hall of Famer.

Wade's Legacy Will Live On

Regardless of how the statue looks, Wade is certainly deserving of such an honor. (However, many would argue he's deserving of a sculpture that bears a better likeness.)

The guard played 15 of his 16 seasons with the Heat, averaging 22.7 points, 5.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds in 948 regular-season games for Miami. He won three NBA championships, two as part of the "Big Three" with LeBron James and Chris Bosh, in addition to a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

During his career, Wade was also a 13-time All-Star and led the league in scoring with an average of 30.2 points in the 2008-09 season. The Heat retired his No. 3 jersey number in 2020 and he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.

If Wade is fine with how the statue looks, that should be the final word. And realistically, he's not going to criticize the likeness publicly. But if public outcry is loud and long enough, perhaps he'll get the tribute fans believe he deserves.