The bronze statue of NBA legend Dwyane Wade outside Miami's Kaseya Center has achieved notoriety for all the wrong reasons, landing at number 27 on a national list of the ugliest public artworks in the United States. The sculpture, which was unveiled on October 27, 2024, to honor the Miami Heat legend and Basketball Hall of Famer, quickly became an internet sensation due to its questionable facial resemblance to the beloved player.

When the Miami Heat revealed the highly anticipated statue on that memorable day, the bronze face immediately sparked widespread criticism and mockery across social media platforms. The statue's appearance was so unlike Wade's actual features that it prompted one user to comment on X (formerly Twitter), "The Dwyane Wade statue will haunt me until my dying day." The bronze sculpture quickly transformed into a viral meme, with internet users comparing it to various celebrities and fictional characters.

The unflattering comparisons ranged from actors Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kelsey Grammer, and Laurence Fishburne to a Darkseeker creature from the movie "I Am Legend." Many also drew parallels to the similarly criticized bronze bust of soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo that had previously made headlines for its poor likeness. The statue depicts Wade in a pose meant to recreate his iconic "This is my house" moment, which followed his game-winning three-pointer that helped defeat the Chicago Bulls 130-127 in double overtime on March 9, 2009.

Even Wade himself seemed taken aback by the statue's appearance, asking "Who is the guy?" when he first saw his bronze likeness during the unveiling ceremony. The sculpture's poor reception reflects a broader challenge in creating realistic bronze representations of public figures, particularly when it comes to facial features and expressions.

The national survey that ranked Wade's statue was conducted by art company Rivers Wall Art, which recruited 2,000 respondents from a diverse, nationwide online panel to ensure balanced representation across different regions, genders, and age groups. The company confirmed that all participants were U.S.-based and carefully reviewed every response for coherence and consistency before compiling the final rankings.

According to the survey results, the most disliked public artwork in America is the Boll Weevil Monument in Enterprise, Alabama, which depicts a woman holding up a pedestal topped with an enormous boll weevil. Wade's statue, while controversial, didn't claim the top spot but still ranked high enough to be considered among the nation's least appreciated public art pieces.

Miami's public art scene took multiple hits in the survey, with several other local installations making the unflattering list. The Miami Marlins' seven-story colorful Homer sculpture landed at number 50, while the $1 million flower sculptures in Coral Gables came in at number 61. Critics have described the flower installations as resembling something from the set of the horror musical "Little Shop of Horrors."

During Wade's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony earlier this month, Miami Heat owner Micky Arison addressed the statue controversy with surprising honesty. "If you look at a variety of different statues when you really focus in on their face, it's hard in bronze to really get a good, good, but that's what Dwyane wanted," Arison explained. He continued, "And Dwyane liked that. I mean, to me, only if you look at a certain angle does it look like Dwyane. If you look at it straight on, it definitely doesn't look like Dwyane. But if he's happy, I'm happy."

The Wade statue controversy has raised questions about future sports figure commemorations, particularly with the upcoming unveiling of a Pat Riley statue outside Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Fans and critics alike are eagerly anticipating whether the Lakers' tribute to their legendary executive will avoid the same pitfalls that made Wade's statue an internet phenomenon for unfavorable reasons.