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After jokes and jabs, Dwyane Wade statue at Heat arena gets makeover
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- After jokes and jabs, Dwyane Wade statue at Heat arena gets makeover
(D.A. Varela & Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/TNS)
MIAMI — Dwyane Wade now has his head screwed on right.
After two years of mockery of the statue of the Miami Heat icon on the front steps of Kaseya Center, a course correction has arrived.
On the eve of Halloween, the frightening reality of the statue's Oct. 27, 2024 unveiling has turned into something far closer in resemblance to when Wade in person struck his depicted "This is my house!" pose inside the team's arena in 2009 after hitting a winning shot against his hometown Chicago Bulls.
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According to the team, the Heat reached out to the artists over a year ago to "evolve the statue." The same artists who created the previous version — Omri Amrany and Oscar Leon — created the retrofit as well. The replacement element of the piece was created in Chicago and put on the already-in-place statue over a two-day period, hidden until Friday by fencing.
After initially offering pushback on criticism of the depiction of the 18-foot statue and then later acknowledging there was no way he could not be in on the joke, the Heat's all-time leading scorer, as he often did during his rare down times with the Heat, went back to work.
Through discussions with the sculptors, quite literally, Wade's image was remade, one revealed Friday after weeks of secrecy, as Wade 2.0 was put in place. The piece was changed only from the neck on up, but it was also cast to match with the weathering of the statue's torso in the intervening years.
In a joint statement, the artists explained the retrofit:
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"After seeing the work at full scale and in its permanent environment, we identified opportunities to strengthen the portrait. We decided that the importance of Dwyane warranted making those refinements rather than accepting something we believed could be improved."
The two then were asked to respond to a query of whether there was something wrong with the original sculpture.
"Once the work could be evaluated in its permanent setting," they said, "we saw an opportunity to further capture Dwyane's likeness and presence. We felt strongly that making that investment was the right thing to do."
Wade then further addressed the change in a Substack essay posted Friday.
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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," he said. "I knew the work, care, and intention that had gone into creating the entire statue, and because of that, I felt a real connection to it. When you know everything that went into creating something, it's easy to defend the work."
But, as time passed, Wade's view changed.
"We listened and had honest conversations with everyone involved, and we all agreed to make adjustments to the head," he wrote. 'The process was different this time because we could focus on one specific part instead of recreating the entire statue. I enjoyed the original process, but I also appreciated the simplicity and focus of this one.
"It gave us a chance to make sure the face better connects with the person and the emotion the statue is meant to represent. This isn't about erasing the work that was already done or disrespecting the artists who put their time and talent into creating it."
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In the immediate wake of the unveiling two years ago, Wade stressed perspective, insisting, "We felt like we captured that moment in artistic form, in an artistic way. If I wanted it to look like me, I would just stand outside the arena, you'all would take photos. It don't need to look like me. It's an artistic version of a moment that happened."
Countless memes followed, with fellow former players joking about the horror of it all.
Most notable was the reaction of Hall of Fame forward Charles Barkley on Inside the NBA.
"It's a great honor," Barkley said, "but they gotta take that thing down. If you made an ugly statue that's what it would look like. That thing is awful."
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Barkley added, "The statue was so bad they had to put all his stats behind it so you know who it was."
Of the feedback and pushback, Wade said he heard it all.
"I care, but I don't," Wade said of the fallout, including one college team posting a photo of the statue on its scoreboard in order to ice an opposing kicker.
"If you don't have a statue," Wade said at the time, "I don't wanna talk.
"You learn how to just laugh, look at it, learn from it, move on, whatever. So, we good. We good."
And, yes, even Wade came around to the reality that the initial version was something less than his best look.
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"Listen," he said in March 2025, "one thing about me is I'm in on the joke. And people lie to you if they say they don't hear it. I hear everything.
"It was a football game going on, they had it behind the guy that missed the game-winning field goal, they put my statue up. I was going crazy."
Sculptors said it took about 800 hours of work to make the original version of the statue, with Wade providing input throughout the process.
Wade hinted early on that the process might require a course correction
"I keep telling people, mine has had to be bronzed even extra," he explained during a 2025 podcast, "because mine is in Miami with that sun and that water. So it got to be able to stand outside all day, all night. So the bronzing process is even more harder on mine. So the facial expressions and all the things on mine is hard."
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And now, Wade said, the right face, the right fit, and still depicting the right moment from a Hall of Fame career.
"I hope when people see it now, they see a better likeness of me," he wrote in his Substack. "But more than that, I hope they see themselves. Because it may be my likeness, but it will always be our house."
