On Sunday, the Miami Heat unveiled a bronze statue of Dwyane Wade in front of their home arena, Kaseya Center. The statue is eight feet in height, and it immortalizes Wade’s reaction to a game-winning 3 he buried against the Chicago Bulls at American Airlines Arena — the former name for Miami’s home arena — back in March of 2009.
Former ESPN journalist Rachel Nichols said that Wade had a large input in how the statue was created and visited the statue maker on four different occasions to give his two cents.
“I think it looks clearly how Dwyane Wade sees himself,” Nichols said of his new statue. “That’s what I can say about him. Well no — that’s not a dig. It’s that because he had the most input on this. And in the end, it’s for him. So, he said he visited the statue maker four different times. He said that one of the visits, he told me — he said, ‘Oh yeah, 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 lips 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!’ So if this is what he wants and how he sees himself, I’m gonna have to go with him.”
Wade perhaps carved out the best career with the Heat of any player ever to suit up for the storied franchise. He was a member of Miami when the team won its first three championships as an organization — in 2006, 2012 and 2013 — and a crucial piece of all those title teams.
Additionally, every one of his 13 All-Star nods came when he played for the Heat, and he captured a scoring title playing for Miami in the 2008-09 season, when he averaged 30.2 points per game while shooting 49.1 percent from the field and 31.7 percent from 3-point range.
The Heat didn’t have a game on Sunday, but they will have their first contest at Kaseya Center since the unveiling of Wade’s statue when they take on the Detroit Pistons on Monday night.
If the Pistons’ record is of any indication, Miami will have a prime opportunity to pick up its second straight win to boot.
The Pistons currently sit at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference standings at 0-3, with their losses so far coming against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics.
Miami picked up its first win of the new campaign against the Charlotte Hornets on Oct. 26 and can improve to 2-1 on the season with a victory against the lowly Pistons.
It would be nothing short of poetic if Miami beats the Pistons just one day after Wade’s statue was revealed outside of Kaseya Center, even if the arena went by a different name when Wade played for the Heat.