Studio J just got the memo: The Flash is no longer a meme. So, of course, the Inside Guys had to roast the wildest rewrite – or re-sculpt – in sports monument history all over again. Two years after the Miami Heat's initial unveiling of Dwyane Wade's statue inspired the best comedy and endless internet memes, the franchise finally stepped in to fix the likeness. On the eve of Halloween, the organization unveiled a redesigned head on the 8-foot bronze sculpture outside Kaseya Center, aiming to replace the widely criticized original face with a far more accurate representation of the Heat legend.
Naturally, Inside the NBA
could not let the course correction pass without revisiting the original disaster. During the latest broadcast on ESPN, Shaquille O'Neal
, Charles Barkley
, Kenny "The Jet" Smith, and Ernie Johnson broke down the Heat's decision to replace the statue's head, unleashing a fresh wave of jokes about the bronze facelift.
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"So, hold on. So, hold on. D-Wade
got a new statue?" O'Neal asked.
"Yeah, just the face part. Just the face," Smith clarified, prompting Johnson to inquire why the situation amused the panel so much.
Watch the NBA legends deliver brutally honest takes on Wade's controversial first statue and why the Heat got it right the second time. Subscribe for unfiltered analysis.
"Y'all made that man redo his statue?" Shaq laughed, leading Barkley to deliver his trademark unfiltered verdict: "Cuz it was ugly."
A little refresher, Chuckster gave the same glowing review in 2024 and demanded they restart from scratch. So Shaq's not off.
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While O'Neal felt his former team should have, "got it right the first time," he was in disbelief that a professional franchise would actually be forced to alter a permanent bronze structure
, Kenny also felt, "It's a statue. They didn't have to redo it."
But Chuck wasn't having it. He insisted the franchise had no choice given a very specific reason. "They had to redo that thing… That thing was horrible."
While Shaq felt that the original design should never have made it past the proofing stage in the first place, Kenny argued they got some details, like, "Well, it said his name on a jersey the first time," accurate, referencing Barkley's famous previous line that the Heat had to list Wade's career stats behind the sculpture so fans could figure out who it was supposed to be.
But Sir Charles
was insistent, "They should have… But at least they had confidence to change it."
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And even The Godfather
agreed. Ernie said, "If you ever make a statue and you can't tell who it is, it's probably time to…" He made a similar joke in 2024, a sentiment that made the Miami Heat reconsider if the fanbase truly connected with this D-Wade statue.
That's why Shaq is blaming the Inside Guys for pushing the Heat to act. "Yeah, but if y'all wouldn't have complained, they wouldn't have changed," O'Neal pointed out.
So the crew had to pull up the original 2024 statue that sparked meme galore. That only cemented Chuck's belief, "Dwyane—look at [that]. The look on Dwyane's face was complaining. Gabrielle's like, 'Oh, hell no. Come on, man. Look at that,'" Barkley doubled down and tried to compare the statue's resemblance to a long time Inside the NBA
staff member.
"Slice," O'Neal interjected, catching the reference. "Kind of look like Slice. That look Slice. What's up, Slice? My boy Slice got those."
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Fun fact: Slice is Michael Martin Jr., a longtime employee on Inside the NBA,
who bears a passing resemblance to Dwyane Wade. You'd hear Shaq blame him on air for everything, from losing bets to making him fart. Now he's catching strays for D-Wade's statue getting fixed.
But Chuck ended this roast declaring one final time, "That was ridiculous, man," and pretty sneakily taking credit for saving The Flash's
monument.
The original sculpture, created by artists Omri Amrany and Oscar Leon of Fine Art Studio Rotblatt Amrany, was designed to freeze-frame Wade's iconic "This is my house!" celebration following his overtime game-winner against the Chicago Bulls in March 2009. However, when revealed in October 2024, the facial features immediately drew international ridicule, with fans and television personalities comparing the bust to everything from comicbook villains and zombie #6 in random movies to Munch's 'Scream.'
Barkley was among the original sculpture's most vocal critics at the time, declaring on national television, "If you made an ugly statue, that's what it would look like. That thing is awful."
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He went on to say, "It's a great honor but they gotta take that thing down." Perhaps that really moved the needle for the Heat to re-inlist Amrany and Leon to retro-fit the improvements.
While Wade initially defended the piece as an "artistic expression of a moment," the 3x NBA champion eventually acknowledged the humor, admitting in March 2025 that he was "in on the joke" after seeing the statue used as a meme in late 2024 after a college football team displayed it on the screens to distract the rival team. Behind the scenes, discussions between Wade, the Heat, and the sculptors were already underway.
According to team officials, the Heat contacted Amrany and Leon over a year ago to refine the head while keeping the original torso and pose intact. The retrofit was cast in Chicago to match the weathering of the remaining structure before being installed over a two-day operation hidden behind construction fencing.
Addressing the makeover in a Substack essay
published alongside the reveal, Wade explained his decision to support the redesign.
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"At first, it was hard not to feel protective of it because I had spent so much time involved in the process," Wade wrote. "I had to ask myself a pretty simple question: 'If people don't feel that connection when they look at the face, why wouldn't we try to make it better?'… We listened and had honest conversations with everyone involved, and we all agreed to make adjustments to the head."
The artists echoed that sentiment in a joint statement, stating that seeing the 8-foot sculpture in its permanent environment highlighted opportunities to better capture Wade's likeness. With the updated facial structure now officially standing outside Kaseya Center, Miami fans have a representation worthy of the franchise's greatest player.
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