Cote: ‘Who is that guy?’ Dwyane Wade deserves immortality of statue -- iffy likeness or not | Opinion
The whole idea of erecting a bronze statue in someone’s honor is to convey immortality, to glorify a name and an accomplishment that should live on in perpetuity.
Dwyane Wade rises to that standard, as he rose to meet or exceed everything else across his 16-year NBA career.
If the planet still exists 100 years from now, if Miami has not slid into the ocean and the Heat is still playing basketball, those future fans should know well Wade’s name as surely as Yankees fans embrace Babe Ruth as a family heirloom still passed from generation to generation, 90 years after he last played in pinstripes.
In Miami’s 60-year history of major sports we have had a Mount Rushmore of two: Wade and Dan Marino.
No other player/athlete has been comparable. Marino made the Dolphins sexy and exciting and set myriad NFL passing records. Wade went beyond stats to lead three championship teams in 2006, 2012 and 2013. The first happened because of his rising brilliance; the latter two because he sacrificed and yielded to LeBron James -- who never would have been here at all if not for Wade’s ministrations borne of friendship.
Marino’s statue, depicting him holding a football aloft in his right hand, was dedicated in 2000, one year after his final season. It stands as a beacon of better days in front of Hard Rock Stadium.
Wade’s statue was unveiled and dedicated Sunday on the west plaza of the Heat’s downtown arena. Monday was set as ‘Dwyane Wade Statue Night’ during the home game vs. Detroit, marking the 21-year anniversary of Wade’s NBA debut in 2003. Wade was to address the crowd during a halftime ceremony, with video tributes throughout the game.
One can only imagine the impact of seeing oneself in bronze. It must have a final-chapter quality, inviting thoughts of mortality. t seemed to for Wade.
“I wanted to feel this. Life goes by so fast,” Wade said on Sunday. “It’s very rare that we get to feel things, because we’re always off to the next thing. So I didn’t prepare much [to say] because I just wanted to feel this. Just thinking about coming here as a young kid at 21 years old and now a 42-year-old man. To be here experiencing something like this with everybody, this is one of the dopest moments of my life, simply put. Probably one of the best moments of my life.”
We cannot talk about the Wade statue and ignore the proverbial elephant in the room.
Reaction to how the statue depicts Wade, facially, has not been kind on social media. The reaction has been closer to incredulity, to mocking. (On my heart, as I was writing this, I just got a text from my wife saying, “They need to re-do it.”)
For the record, Wade loves it. “I was just like, ‘That’s beautiful,” he said. “I’m biased, but I think it’s one of the best statues that’s been created because of what it represents for us and for me.”
At one point Sunday Wade said, “I wanted to look at it. Like, ‘That’s crazy, who is that guy?’” -- but he didn’t mean it like the critics meant it. They meant it literally.
I must admit, I get the criticism. To put it mildly I don’t love the rendering of Wade’s face, although it seems better on inspection, from some angles, than from afar and in most photos.
I’ll admit, too, I’m not huge on building statues for living persons. For me statues should be a posthumous honor, one given in memoriam, the ultimate epitaph.
But statues, whether for the living or dead, have become all the rage, with sports seeming to lead that parade.
Wade’s is at least the 14th NBA statue.
Dolphins icon-coach Don Shula got his in 2010. “I think the chin is too long,” he joked at the dedication.
The University of Miami unveiled a statue of legendary baseball coach Ron Fraser in 2015, two years after his death.
The Marlins planned to have a statue for pitcher Jose Fernandez, who died tragically in a boating accident in 2016, but quietly scrapped the idea when Fernandez was found to bear responsibility for the wreck that also killed two others.
A larger than life statue of Dolphins founder Joe Robbie stands near the Marino statue.
Weird true story about the Robbie statue: It was dedicated in 1998 (eight years after his death) and stood through 2004 ... then disappeared. It was removed during stadium renovations in ‘04, placed in storage and apparently forgotten before being noticed and rededicated in 2011.
Heat president Pat Riley had the home court dedicated in his honor last week. He needs a statue, too. Get it done, Heat.
The overriding point here is not whether I don’t like statues for living people or whether the fan reaction to Wade’s depiction in bronze has been less than universally kind.
The point is that Wade deserves every honor an athlete can get, and if a statue has come to be seen as the ultimate honor, then it’s right Wade has it.
Drafted out of Marquette, Wade in his 16-year Hall of Fame tenure with the Heat (save brief late-career detours to Chicago and Cleveland) embossed himself as a giant in Miami sports history: Great on the court, classy off it, imprimatur of a champion, and immensely popular in a way that has not diminished, perhaps only grown, in the five year since his retirement.
The statue depicts Wade celebrating with a index fingers pointed down: “This is my house!”
“I didn’t play for this,” he said of the statue. “I didn’t pick up a basketball for this. I picked up a basketball to change my family’s life. I could not have written this script any better.”
He closed Sunday’s statue dedication with words perfect as a winning buzzer-beater:
“I believe I gave you guys something set in stone to hold onto. This is my house. I’m out.”
