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.”