It takes a special player to have a statue made after them and displayed after them.
The Los Angeles Lakers have a statue of Kobe Bryant outside of Crypto.com Arena. The Chicago Bulls have a statue of Michael Jordan outside of United Center.
Just recently, the Miami Heat created and unveiled a statue of their most important player in franchise history, Dwayne Wade.
Wade has been a crucial part of history by being a key player in the three NBA Championship-winning teams. The 13-time NBA All-Star and the Hall of Fame is one of the greatest players in NBA history.
His statue in front of Kaseya Center, however, isn’t great.
How bad is the statue?
On Saturday, October 26, the unveiling of Wade’s statute was presented with lots of emotions, mostly confused emotions. The statue wasn’t even close to looking like Wade when it was first displayed.
No one at the official unveiling said anything negative, but there were many jokes afterward. It is similar to the infamous Tom Brady busts or the bust of soccer star Christin Ronaldo.
Wade said he had a hand in the design of the statue in front of the Kaseya Center. Even worse, he said it is the embodiment of the entire Heat organization, although the statue is actually depicting a famous iconic celebration he made during his time with the Heat.
Van Gundy talks about the statue
It has been several weeks and nothing about the statue makes sense at all. Wade knows he has to defend it to the core because he cares about Heat Culture and Heat Nation, but is open to the funny criticism that is taking place. He has been able to tell his friends, former teammates and coaches to refrain from slamming the inaccurate statue.
One of them is Wade’s former head coach Stan Van Gundy. On Tuesday, Van Gundy was on the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz to talk about the current state of the NBA and the past.
Le Batard tried to get Van Gundy to talk about the statue as well. He was able to hold back his tongue and make sure he wasn’t going to say anything to offend his friend and former player.
Instead, Van Gundy diverted the attention to respecting Wade: “I have refrained from laughing about or commenting on it— I’m not going to laugh because Dwyane Wade made my entire career.
“I go home to my house every night and open the door, a nice house, and say ‘Thank you, Dwyane Wade.’”
That is true respect, and you can argue Wade has definitely earned it.
