Bronze statue of Dwayne Wade inspires jokes and critical comments

For many athletes, acquiring a statue is a big deal, a sign of significant achievement and recognition of their legacy. Unfortunately for three-time NBA champion Dwayne Wade, the 7-foot-3 bronze figure unveiled outside the Kaseya Center largely sparked jokes and criticism because it looks nothing like him.

The statue was unveiled on October 27, reportedly in reference to the Miami Heat player's “This is my house” gesture in response to a double-overtime win against the Chicago Bulls late in the 2008–2009 regular season. It was designed by Omri Amrany and artist Oscar Leon.

Almost immediately, images and videos of the statue sparked negative reactions online and jokes about how much it didn't look like Wade. The Associated Press reported that the statue was trending worldwide on social media and featured on national newscasts.

Comments on the statue now include Gov. Tim Walz, who is currently running as Kamala Harris' vice presidential running mate; Charles Barkley and The Atlantic Staff writer Ross Andersen, who called it “The worst statue in the history of sports.”

“It's terrible, but D-Wade, what a class act,” Walz said Oct. 29 on The Dan Lebatard Show with Stugotz. “He was like, 'No, that's really nice.' I am grateful.'. Yeah, I don't know how they can do this wrong. Wouldn’t you think they would show everyone first?”

Walz said the statue looked more like a famous actor.

“When I saw that, I thought of Laurence Fishburne,” Walz said with a smile. “I said, that’s really Laurence.”

During TNTs Tip off show That same evening, host Ernie Johnson called the statue a great honor for Wade, before Barkley remarked, “It's a great honor, but they've got to take that thing down.”

Barkley later added, “If you made an ugly statue, it would look like this. “That thing is terrible.”

Accordingly Front Office SportsThe company employs 15 artists and has created numerous statues of athletes, including Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson and ten others around the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles; one shows Kobe Bryant sitting courtside with his daughter Gigi; and one of Michael Jordan in front of the United Center, first shown in 1994.

Leon told NBC South Florida The concept for the statue began with a collection of photos of Wade that were transformed into a clay model. Wade spent sixteen hours at Amrany's Chicago company, Studio Rotblatt Amrany, which visited the artists several times and worked closely with the artists to create the statue. There were also contributions from the athlete's closest friends as well as Miami Heat executives.

“For the critics, there is a lot that needs to be understood,” Leon said, noting that more than 800 hours of work went into the sculpture. “We have to seal everything to preserve the integrity of the sculpture. However, this has a fun little side effect because we shine in areas that we are not used to seeing when we look at someone in the flesh.”

“The seal definitely creates a little misunderstanding to the eye. So I would definitely recommend everyone to come to Miami and see it in person,” Leon said.

Wade is aware of the comments and criticism of the statue. He defended his appearance and said that Associated Press“If I wanted it to look like me, I would just stand in front of the arena and you could all take photos.”

“It doesn’t have to look like me. It’s an artistic version of an event that we’re trying to consolidate.”

Wade also praised the production process. “I don’t know many people with a statue. Do you? Does anyone here know anything about the process of making a statue? No one out there does that either,” Wade said. “So it’s an incredible process to be a part of. And it’s a complicated process.”