Two years after Dwyane Wade’s statue became the most roasted statue in sports, the Miami Heat put a new head on it. This one actually looks like him.
The team shared the first clear photos of the fix on Friday, calling it a closer look at the enhancements to the statue outside Kaseya Center. The new head went on Tuesday and Wednesday, after the statue spent days hidden inside a plywood box, according to the Miami Herald.
“I heard the jokes. I saw the memes. I read the reactions. Everybody had an opinion about whether it actually looked like me.”
Dwyane Wade, writing on Substack on Friday
Wade said the question that settled it was a simple one: “If people don’t feel that connection when they look at the face, why wouldn’t we try to make it better?” He said everybody involved agreed to adjust the head, and this time the process could focus on the face alone instead of recreating the whole statue.
The original went up in October 2024, frozen in his “This is my house” celebration from the 2009 double overtime win over Chicago. The face became an instant meme, with fans saying it looked like everybody except Wade. He defended it back then, saying if he wanted it to look like him, he would just stand outside the arena and let people take photos.
The Heat’s caption on the photos borrowed his own closing line: “It may be my likeness, but it will always be our house.” The new version is on display Friday night with Indiana in town.
SEE ALSO: Ron Harper Shot His Shot at an AI Volleyball Player and Lil Baby Breaks His Silence on Gunna