On Sunday (Oct. 27), the Miami Heat unveiled a statue honoring Dwyane Wade outside the team's Kaseya Center venue. According to NBC News, it’s the first time a player received such an honor under that organization.
“Y’all look at this? Y’all got videos [and] photos? This is crazy,” Wade stated following the ceremony. “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 didn’t prepare much because I just wanted to feel this, man. I just wanted to look at it. Like, that’s crazy... Who is that guy?”
Not long after, social media users provided a wealth of takes about the statue. It quickly became clear that many felt it did not resemble the three-time NBA champion. Other notable figures, like Laurence Fishburne and Christopher Judge's “Stargate SG-1" character, came up as possible references. One user shared an image of Kelsey Grammer, stating, “Dwyane Wade's statue looks like he had too much tossed salad and scrambled eggs.” The message was a humorous nod to the theme song from “Frasier.”
Another took a more serious approach with their opinion of the statue. “Whoever is being hired to create these basketball players statues [is] doing a horrible job,” the individual stated. “Salute to the Heat for honoring Dwyane Wade, but the statue created in his honor was not a good one.”
Timeless Creations’ Omri Amrany and Oscar León, who brought the towering work of art to life, spoke on the collaboration process to 7 News Miami. “On D-Wade, we probably had about 700 to 800 pounds worth of clay, so we had to make sure we had a very strong underlying support system to handle that,” said León. Amrany added, “We try to eliminate gravity. If I can give you the feeling that the person is up in the air somehow.”
Check out some other reactions below.