Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade was honored by the Miami Heat on Sunday with the unveiling of a statue outside the Kaseya Center. Such a gesture is arguably the ultimate tribute that a professional sports franchise or athletic program can pay to an iconic figure.
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.
The statue immortalized the moment on March 9, 2009, when Wade hit a game-winning shot in a double-overtime matchup with the Chicago Bulls, after which he stood on the scorer’s table and declared: “This is my house!“
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.
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.
