Utah Jazz owner Dwayne Wade supports newly unveiled statue in Miami

A statue of former Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade at the Kaseya Center, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in Miami. Photo: Kirby Lee via AP

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah —Dwyane Wade, part owner of the Utah Jazz, is now the first Miami Heat player with a statue outside the team’s arena.

The Heat unveiled the statue Sunday, about eight months after team president Pat Riley announced plans for the tribute. Wade is Miami’s all-time leading scorer, and he and Udonis Haslem are the only players to have been on all three Heat teams that won NBA championships.

The statue depicts Wade’s “This is my house” moment, the one where he jumped atop a courtside table after a buzzer-beater to beat Chicago in double overtime in 2009.

“This is crazy,” Wade said moments after the unveiling. “I wanted to feel this. Life goes by so fast and it’s very rare that we get to feel things, because we’re always off to the next thing. … I wanted to feel this, man. I wanted to look at it.”

Wade, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, is one of six former Heat players to have their number retired by the team — along with Haslem, Chris Bosh, Tim Hardaway, Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning.

“As the greatest player ever in Miami Heat history, yes, it’s his day, it’s his family’s day,” Riley said.

The statue is accompanied by a wall listing Wade’s career accomplishments and has been placed outside the front doors of the team’s arena. 

Amid reports that some fans thought that the statue’s facial features resemble someone other than Wade he said to the Miami Herald,  “I appreciate all the comments everyone has,” Wade said. “I’m in on the joke. I laugh all the time.”