A statue commemorating Dwayne Wade looks nothing like the NBA champion, and (of course) the internet responded by way of many, many memes.
What is the Dwayne Wade statue?
On Oct. 27th, the Miami Heat held an unveiling ceremony for a new statue and career highlight wall honoring retired player Dwayne Wade outside of Kaseya Center, the stadium where the team plays its home games.
Unfortunately for Wade and the Heat, the bronze statue quickly went viral for a reason the team's administration somehow did not foresee—the fact that it looks very little like Dwayne Wade.
The Basketball Hall of Famer and 13-time All-Star was himself caught off guard at the unveiling, saying "That's crazy, I can't believe that, who is that guy?" leading to more online hilarity.
Who built the Dwayne Wade statue?
The statue took around 800 hours of labor and was designed by Timeless Creations' Omri Amrany and Oscar León. According to the BBC, it was meant to capture Wade's iconic this is my house" moment after a winning 3-pointer against the Chicago Bulls back in 2009. Wade was directly involved in the process, even viewing parts of the piece (including the face) as it was being sculpted.
Sculptor Oscar León reacts to criticism of his Dwayne Wade statue
León addressed the negative reactions on Oct. 29, 2024, in a statement to NBC News.
"To the critics, there’s a lot that needs to be understood," he said. "We have to seal everything to keep the integrity of the sculpture. However, that does create a funny little side effect of being glossy in areas that we are not used to seeing when we look at somebody in the flesh."
"The sealer definitely creates a little bit of, um, a misunderstanding to the eye. So, I would definitely encourage everyone to come to Miami and view it in person."
Morpheus and Frasier comparisons
Much speculation has gone into who the statue looks like, including comparison to Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus in The Matrix, or Kelsey Grammer. Others think it looks like a knockoff version of the basketball player, a kind of "Wayne Dade” or “Dwyane Wade from Temu."
What did Dwayne say about his statue?
On Monday, Wade (somewhat defensively) responded to the statue's critical response, saying, "If I wanted it to look like me, I'd just stand outside the arena and y'all can take photos. It don't need to look like me. It's the artistic version of a moment that happened that we're trying to cement."
"I care, but I don't," Wade added. "The social media world is about opinions. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone, use y'all opinions. Please talk more about us. Talk more about a statue, come on down to see it, take some photos, send some memes. We don't care."
The best Dwayne Wade statue memes
Other meme variations
More NBA memes:
- Brian Windhorst became an NBA meme. Now why is that?
- LeBron James: The king of memes
- Here are some of the best NBA memes
- The definitive list of Shaq’s best memes
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