Miami Heat Unveil 2nd Dwyane Wade Statue Version After Viral Original

Q: Why did the Miami Heat quietly rework Dwyane Wade’s mocked statue face, and is the new version finally close enough for fans?

The Heat quietly reworked Dwyane Wade’s statue because the original face became a lasting embarrassment and, by Wade’s own account, failed the most basic test: fans did not feel a connection when they looked at it. After two years of ridicule over how little the statue resembled him, Wade said he agreed with the team and the sculptors that the head should be adjusted. He framed it as listening to the public, not erasing the artists’ work, saying Miami “deserves to feel proud of it.” The changes were focused on the head only. The statue still shows Wade’s famous 2009 “This is my house” celebration against Chicago, but the face was redesigned in recent days while the old version was covered from public view. The original artists, Omri Amrany and Oscar León, said they saw room to strengthen the portrait after seeing it at full scale and in place. As for whether the new version is finally close enough, the answer appears to be mostly yes. Early reactions describe it as a clear improvement and much closer to Wade’s actual appearance. It does not seem to have ended all criticism, and few are calling it perfect, but the broad response is that it now looks far more like Wade than the mocked original ever did. In practical terms, the Heat did not try to pretend the problem never existed. They fixed the most criticized part, and while the first version will remain a memorable misfire, the updated statue is much nearer to what fans expected.

2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 30

Two years after the first unveiling, the Miami Heat presented an enhanced Dwyane Wade statue designed to more closely resemble the franchise icon.
The update follows a viral backlash to the original statue, which drew widespread mockery because fans said it looked little like Wade.
The revised version improves the likeness enough to blunt the criticism, though the report says it stops short of becoming a standout work.
The episode adds Wade to a string of sports-statue misfires that have turned public tributes into internet punchlines.