If there was any doubt, there can be none now: The Miami Heat’s arena is Dwyane Wade’s house.
Amid a Sunday celebration of the most iconic figure in the franchise’s 37 seasons, the Heat unveiled on the front steps of Kaseya Center a bronze statue of Wade in his iconic “This is my house!” pose.
It was on March 9, 2009, while the facility still was known as AmericanAirlines Arena, that Wade, the team’s three-time championship guard, capped a 48-point performance with a steal followed by a buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer at the end of double-overtime, immediately hopping on a courtside table opposite the Heat bench, pumping his hands against his chest and making it known the building was his.
“This is my house! This is my house!” he bellowed amid the raucous celebration after taking down his hometown Chicago Bulls, as Heat owner Micky Arison looked on from below, amid the frenzy.
Now that moment will endure for posterity alongside Biscayne Boulevard, strides from Northeast 7th Street that was named “Dwyane Wade Boulevard” in his honor in February 2021.
Our franchise’s greatest legacy, forever cemented pic.twitter.com/0wBDQ3Cz2C
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) October 27, 2024
Wade, 42, took a deep breath after the statue was unveiled before addressing the crowd, noting he had limited prepared comments.
“I wanted to feel this,” he said. “Life goes by so fast.”
He paused.
“Like that’s crazy,” he said with a smile of the 8-foot statue directly behind. “Who is that guy? This is out of body.”
He then attempted to sum up his Heat experience, saying, “I can’t write this script any better.”
While the actual pose for the statue was kept a closely guarded secret, there was little doubt that the moment of unbridled emotion against his hometown team would be the moment cast for the ages of the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.
Sunday, in an outdoor ceremony, Wade, Heat officials, former teammates and current Heat players basked in the moment, with the team also to honor Wade in another statue commemoration at halftime of Monday night’s game against the visiting Detroit Pistons, 21 years to the date of when Wade made his NBA debut with 18 points in a road loss to Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Since then, Wade paired with Shaquille O’Neal for the first of the franchise’s three titles, in 2006, and then with Big Three teammates LeBron James and Chris Bosh for titles in 2012 and ’13.
Wade called Sunday his, “set-in-stone moment.”
To Heat center Bam Adebayo, it was an overdue ceremony.
“I feel like he should have had it as an active player,” Adebayo said.
Among Sunday’s speakers was former Heat captain and current Heat executive Udonis Haslem, who spoke of Wade’s unceasing confidence.
“I often tell him, ‘Don’t anybody ever tell you no?’” Haslem said to the assembled crowd, “and he said, ‘no.’”
Haslem added, “You continue to inspire … and today, you’re officially 305 for life.”
Wade, too, spoke of what became his second home, and for more than the Heat culture.
“You guys embraced me, Miami,” he said. “And I felt a home here right away.”
Four days after the Kaseya Center court was named in his honor, Heat President Pat Riley also addressed the crowd.
“As the greatest player ever in Miami Heat history, yes it is, it’s his day,” Riley said.
Riley was followed by Wade’s oldest child, Zaire Wade.
“For me, he’s a father first,” Zaire Wade said, as a tear dropped from his father’s left eye. “Love you pops.”
Sunday’s moment was another moment of graduation for the Heat into the NBA’s pantheon of franchises with histories rich enough to be cast in bronze.
Already in place in NBA cities are statues honoring Bill Russell, Red Auerbach, Larry Bird (Boston); O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles); Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston); Tim Duncan (San Antonio); Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Allen Iverson, Charles Barkley (Philadelphia); Karl Malone, John Stockton (Utah); Dominique Wilkins (Atlanta); George Mikan (Minneapolis) and Reggie Miller (Indianapolis).
Wade already has his No. 3 in the rafters at Kaseya Center, with acknowledgment of his Hall of Fame presence attached. Wade also has a banner in the arena rafters for his gold medal with Team USA at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Wade statue was sculpted by Omri Amrany and Oscar León of Fine Art Studio Rotblatt Amrany, the same pair who sculpted the Michael Jordan statue at Chicago’s United Center.
Wade said Heat Culture resonated and still resonates.
“Because of that belief,” he said. “I gave everything I had to the game,”
Now personified in bronze.
“One word that comes around a lot is legacy,” Wade said of a career of interviews. “I have words to sum up what legacy is … you want to believe one day you leave some footprint.
“I believe I gave you guys something set in stone to believe in. This is my house.”
