2 weeks Ago By Yahoo Sports
Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade was honored by the on Sunday with the unveiling of a statue in his honor outside the Kaseya Center. Such a gesture is arguably the ultimate tribute that a professional sports franchise or athletic program can pay to an iconic figure. Wade was surely awed by the spectacle of having a sculpture of him created that generations of fans can now look at outside the Heat's home arena and recall one of the team's greatest players.
Dwyane Wade watches the Miami Heat unveil his statue: “this is out of body, y’all.” — Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) The statue immortalized the moment in March 9, 2009, when Wade hit a game-winning shot in a two-overtime matchup with the , after which he stood upon the scorer's table and declared " " Yet as impressive as the sculpture and the Heat's presentation may have been, once the statue was unveiled, many noted that the bronze memorial didn't really resemble the NBA star. Why can’t we get statues of people.
..that look like the people they’re supposed to represent.
Nobody sees Dwyane Wade here. — Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) So..
...
this new Dwyane Wade statue at the Heat's stadium 🤣🤣🤣 — CHGO Bulls (@CHGO_Bulls) The reaction to the statue and its lack of similarity to the real-life figure being honored resembled of international soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo that was unveiled at the airport in his native Madeira in Portugal. The outrage over a goofy, cartoonish rendition of the strikingly handsome Ronaldo was so loud and global that a new sculpture was commissioned, one that nearly all agreed resembled its actual subject much more closely. I defy you not to feel better after viewing this picture of Cristiano Ronaldo alongside his portrait bust.
— Tom Sutcliffe (@tds153) A State Farm commercial featuring former NFL quarterback and current Prime Video studio analyst Ryan Fitzpatrick made fun of a ridiculous bust being made of him. Everyone involved, including "Jake from State Farm" and Fitzpatrick's colleague Charissa Thompson insisted the sculpture's resemblance was spot-on. Yet Fitzpatrick was in disbelief and viewers of the ad surely agreed at how absurd the bust looked.
Here we are with real life once again drawing a parallel with a comedic commercial spoofing exactly these types of moments. Perhaps in the days to come, someone will ask Fitzpatrick — himself a former Miami professional athlete, playing for the from 2019-20 — what he thinks of the Wade statue. At the very least, he could repeat the "What did I do to deserve this?" line from the commercial and apply it to the NBA Hall of Famer.
Miami Heat did Dwyane Wade dirty — Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) Regardless of how the statue looks, Wade is certainly deserving of such an honor. (However, many would argue he's deserving of a sculpture that bears a better likeness.) The guard played 15 of his 16 seasons with the Heat, averaging 22.
7 points. 5.4 assists and 4.
7 rebounds in 948 regular season games for Miami. He won three NBA championships as part of the "Big Three" with LeBron James and Chris Bosh, in addition to a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. happy for Cuttino Mobley he earned this — Kelly Dwyer (@KDonhoops) During his career, Wade was also a 13-time All-Star and led the league in scoring with an average of 30.
2 points in the 2008-09 season. The Heat retired his No. 3 jersey number in 2020 and he was inducted into the in 2023.
If Wade is fine with how the statue looks, that should be the final word. And realistically, he's not going to criticize the likeness publicly. But if public outcry is loud and long enough, perhaps he'll get the tribute fans believe he deserves.
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