The Miami Heat celebrated Dwyane Wade’s legacy by honoring him with an eight-foot statue outside the Kaseya Center. Ideally, a statue is a mark of admiration, but some fans feel the organization fell short in honoring their legend due to the statue’s disoriented facial structure. Los Angeles Clippers’ play-by-play announcers couldn’t help but laugh at the embarrassing incident as well.
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During the Warriors vs Clippers game, the LA side’s announcers brought up the issue because D-Wade’s statue unveiling was the highlight of the NBA tonight. Sadly, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Wade ended up as a joke on live TV.
“The facial structure does not look like, to us, to me in particular, Dwyane Wade,” one of the announcers said. “The art of statue-making is apparently very difficult,” the second announcer tried to save the sculptors’ honor.
Lmao Clippers announcers roasting the heck out of the D-Wade statue during the broadcast pic.twitter.com/pcb2w5KjeT
— Oh Yes He Did (@OhYesHeDid24) October 28, 2024
However, the first announcer wasn’t having any of it. He pointed out that the ancient eras had better, more accurate statues that resembled the person they were built for. So there’s no excuse for botching a statue with all the modern tools that are available for sculpting.
The sculptors defended themselves from all the criticism. Disregarding the fact that the statue looked more like a representation of Antoine Walker, Omri Amrany and Oscar León claimed that this version of the statue was as good as they could make using “human hands”.
It would’ve been much more special for Wade if the figurine resembled him more… even if it required the usage of technology. While the Heat legend loves the franchise for this tribute, he also took shots at the inaccuracies of the sculpture.
“Who is that guy?” Wade hilariously trolled his statute in the press conference.
“Who is that guy?”
Dwyane Wade’s reaction to his statue
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) October 27, 2024
Over the past few years, multiple other statues have also received criticism.
The Lakers unveiled a Kobe Bryant statute outside the Crypto.com Arena. This same heartfelt tribute was received with criticism due to multiple reasons – spelling errors, disproportionate arms, and other inaccuracies.
The Sixers also received backlash for Allen Iverson’s statue, with fans accusing them of making it “small” on purpose. It seemed as though the franchise disrespected AI’s legacy by mocking his height.
None of the franchises addressed these issues, and it seems unlikely that the Heat will replace the statue either.
