Dwyane Wade might not agree with all the statue jokes.
Th Heat star was heavily involved in the creative process of his bronze statue the Miami Heat unveiled in front of Kaseya Center on Sunday — that many suggested online looks nothing like him.
Wade — who was the fifth overall pick by the Heat in the 2003 NBA Draft and went on to win three championships with Miami — met with Rotblatt Amrany Studio sculptors Omri Amrany and Oscar León on four different occasions for hours in Chicago, and offered his feedback throughout the making of it, he told the Miami Herald.
The Hall of Fame guard, whose No. 3 jersey was retired by the Heat in 2020, explained that he had the sculptors measure his face after they initially got the dimensions wrong on his face.
Fox Sports 1 personality Rachel Nichols confirmed that Wade did indeed have a big say in how he appeared in the statue.
“I mean, look, I think it looks clearly how Dwyane Wade sees himself,” Nichols said during an appearance on “The Dan Le Batard Show” on Monday. “That’s not a dig, because he had the most input on this and in the end, it’s for him.
“He said he visited the statue maker four different times. He said that one of the visits — he told me — he’s like, ‘They didn’t get the distance between the bottom of my nose and my lip correctly. The ratio was off.
“So I had them measure in between the bottom of my nose and the lip so they could get that exactly right.’ So if he’s doing that level of detail, it tells me that the rest of it, he was like, ‘Oh yeah, this is it.’”
Le Batard went on to joke that Nichols was one of few people defending the 8-foot statue after many said it didn’t look like Wade.
“I’m not defending the statue, I’m just saying that Dwyane likes the statue,” Nichols said. “It’s his statue… he had the biggest hand in it of anyone.”
Wade — the all-time leader in points, assists, steals and games played for the Heat — called the making of the statue a “beautiful process” to be involved in.
“Dwyane was visiting multiple times,” León told the Miami Herald. “It was that last visit with those last little tweaks that he got to see firsthand. After that, we really do kind of trust the process. The bronze brings out a level of depth and shine and this vibrancy that you cannot get in the clay. The clay absorbs a lot of light, where this bronze has this nice quality that you just can’t picture what that’s going to look like. But we trust the process.”
The statue is first made with clay before the bronze is applied.
Wade chose an iconic moment from his Heat career that the statue commemorates.
It was his triumphant celebration after he hit a one-legged game-winning three-pointer as time expired to break a 127-127 tie against the Bulls in double overtime on March 9, 2009.
Wade, who finished with 48 points, six rebounds, 12 assists, four steals and three blocks, jumped on the scorer’s table and yelled, “This is my house!”
The eight-time All-NBA selection gushed over the statue while reflecting on his storied career with the Heat at a podium outside of Kaseya Center on Sunday.
“This is crazy,” Wade, 42, said. “… I didn’t prepare much because I just wanted to feel this, man. I wanted to look at it. Like that’s crazy, I can’t believe that. Who is that guy?
It’s the first Heat statue unveiled at its home arena in the franchise’s 37 seasons.
