The Miami Heat have had several franchise legends over the years. Dwayne Wade is the only one to have a statue outside their arena. Wade played for the team for parts of 15 seasons of his NBA career. He won three championships with the franchise.
Wade retired following the 2018-19 season. He helped turn the Heat into one of the premier franchises in the NBA. Miami gave him a statue that went viral for not looking much like Wade. Now, the statue has gotten some changes to make the likeness closer.
Heat Make Changes to Dwayne Wade Statue to Create Better Likeness
Miami has made some changes to the facial structure of the statue to make it look more like Wade.
The newer version of the statue looks much more like Wade, which is how the statue should have always looked. Wade says that he was involved in the statue’s creation with the artist and didn’t see many issues. Perhaps he was just trying to save the reputation of the person who made it.
With the Heat in the beginning of their season, having a better-looking statue is something that is good news. Wade deserves to be properly honored for all of the accomplishments that he had in his career. Very few careers match up to what he was able to do.
In his career, Wade was a 13-time All-Star and won the All-Star Game MVP in 2010. He made First-team All-NBA twice, Second-Team All-NBA three times, and Third-Team All-NBA three times. Wade was also Second-Team All-Defense three times.
Wade is a franchise icon for the Heat, and now he gets to watch a new generation of Heat players. Only one player is left on the team that he was teammates with. That is Bam Adebayo, who is the second-best player on the team now. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the star of the show.
Miami Needs to Turn Things Around
As Miami enters a new era, they started off with an 0-4 record. After getting their first win, the Heat need to turn things around. The Eastern Conference is too hard of a conference to make the playoffs if they dig themselves too big of a hole. That’s why picking up that first win was so critical.
Early on, the offense has looked disjointed. It’s clear that the players don’t have much chemistry with each other yet. Developing that chemistry quickly is the key to them getting back into the thick of things for a playoff spot. It’s still much too early to write them off.
Right now, Miami has the sixth-worst defensive rating in the NBA. Defense was what this team was supposed to hang its hat on with Antetokounmpo and Adebayo manning the paint. Instead, they have not done a good job of stopping the point of attack.
Perhaps the backcourt should take some tips from how Wade played during his career. He was one of the best defensive guards in modern history.
Heat Make Changes to Viral Dwyane Wade Statue