Add Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the list of critics of the Dwyane Wade statue.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate got a glimpse of the statue that has gone viral for not resembling the Miami Heat legend.
Internet memes have said the statue looks like almost anyone but Wade. Walz said he saw a resemblance to Laurence Fishburne.
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Tim Walz and Dwayne Wade’s Statue (IMAGN)
“How gracious was D-Wade about this to the sculptor? Because this is pretty horrific,” Walz told Dan Le Batard. “I don’t know how they got that wrong.”
Walz called Wade a “class act” for seemingly being OK with how the statue turned out.
“He’s either gracious or he didn’t care,” Walz joked.
Wade, at least publicly, seemed to OK with how he looks.
“If I wanted it to look like me, I would just stand outside the arena, and y’all could take photos,” Wade said. “It don’t need to look like me. It’s an artistic version of a moment that happened, that we’re trying to cement.”
Wade said the unveiling was still a “special moment for my family and I.”
Dwyane Wade during his statue unveiling Oct. 27, 2024, at Kaseya Center in Miami, Fla. (Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
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“I don’t know a lot of people with a statue, do you?” Wade added. “Anybody here, y’all know anything about the process of creating a statue? No one out there do, neither. It’s an unbelievable process to be a part of. And it’s a complicated process. Sitting down with the Miami Heat and myself, we wanted to capture a moment that represented the organization, and represented myself and represented this city. We felt like we captured that moment in artistic form.”
The pose of the statue is from Wade yelling “This is my house” during a March 2009 game against his hometown Chicago Bulls. However, Wade’s jersey in that game was an “El Heat” jersey, not a “Miami” jersey.
Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat celebrates a victory over the Chicago Bulls March 9, 2009, at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Fla. (Victor Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
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Oscar Leon, the artist who created the sculpture, said 800 hours of work went into the statue, 16 of them with Wade, using photos of Wade that were turned into a clay model with the help of some computers.
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